Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Lowers Stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA cut its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 34.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,841 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,492 shares during the quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $52,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after buying an additional 4,913,376 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,276 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,587,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,203,000 after purchasing an additional 859,136 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,028,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,498,000 after purchasing an additional 59,339 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 12.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,339,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,343,000 after purchasing an additional 260,361 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the transaction, the director now owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of EBC stock opened at $18.84 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $17.72 and its 200 day moving average is $17.06. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.22 and a 1-year high of $19.40. The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.12 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 6.02%. On average, analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.64%.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Eastern Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to retail, commercial, and small business customers. The company provides deposit accounts, interest checking accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and time certificates of deposit accounts.