East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Short Interest Update

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) saw a significant drop in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,470,000 shares, a drop of 10.6% from the October 15th total of 5,000,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 736,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.1 days. Currently, 3.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at East West Bancorp

In other news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 2,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.50, for a total transaction of $167,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,382,509.50. The trade was a 10.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.65, for a total transaction of $147,975.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,049,537.35. This represents a 12.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,969 shares of company stock worth $2,625,276 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On East West Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EWBC. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $30,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in East West Bancorp by 362.8% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 361 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the period. American Capital Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in East West Bancorp in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in East West Bancorp by 490.1% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EWBC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $97.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $91.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $103.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, East West Bancorp has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.25.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EWBC traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $103.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 802,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 934,225. East West Bancorp has a 1-year low of $60.34 and a 1-year high of $107.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $89.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $14.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.27.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by $0.03. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 16.07%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that East West Bancorp will post 8.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th were issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.78%.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.