William Blair Investment Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,505,539 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 60,746 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.17% of Eastern Bankshares worth $43,221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co now owns 24,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $418,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 21.1% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 6,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 20,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter valued at $41,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:EBC opened at $16.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.49 and a beta of 0.95. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.36.

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

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.93%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 71.64%.

Eastern Bankshares Company Profile

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.