Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the three ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $15.25.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Friday, January 26th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 1.7 %

Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $12.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.85. Eastern Bankshares has a 52 week low of $9.93 and a 52 week high of $15.07. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $13.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $230.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.52 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 49.59%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 40,288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.08, for a total value of $526,967.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 42,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $549,883.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tortoise Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $134,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $164,000. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 3rd quarter valued at about $151,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $189,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $220,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

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.