Insider Selling: Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Director Sells $106,033.28 in Stock

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 2.7 %

Eastern Bankshares stock traded down $0.50 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $18.07. The stock had a trading volume of 570,576 shares, compared to its average volume of 998,408. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a one year low of $12.22 and a one year high of $19.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $17.24 and its 200 day moving average is $15.76.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. The business had revenue of $299.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 18.97%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EBC. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter worth $25,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. PFS Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Sachetta LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter worth about $41,000. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $18.50 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th.

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.