Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,130,000 shares, an increase of 12.8% from the December 15th total of 3,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 940,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Eastern Bankshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 1,155.9% during the 3rd quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 4,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 3,988 shares during the period. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

EBC stock opened at $17.50 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $17.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.75. Eastern Bankshares has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.54 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. The company had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.74%. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is presently 20.69%.

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.