Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Update

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) saw a significant increase in short interest in 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 trading volume, of 940,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

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

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 EPS 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 given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.69%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 21.0% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 378,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,205,000 after acquiring an additional 65,764 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,943,000. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,061,000 after purchasing an additional 467,663 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,276 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,088,000 after purchasing an additional 86,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.