Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Position Boosted by Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC

Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 112.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,666,519 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,409,471 shares during the quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $45,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 51.8% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 165,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,847,000 after buying an additional 56,291 shares in the last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter valued at $232,000. Azora Capital LP purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $13,499,000. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,710,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,008,000 after purchasing an additional 217,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $498,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $15.04 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.05. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $12.66 and a 52 week high of $19.40. The firm has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45 and a beta of 0.97.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $222.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $226.98 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 6.02%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently -80.00%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, CFO R David Rosato purchased 10,000 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

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.