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

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,130,000 shares, a growth 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EBC. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,913,376 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 595.7% in the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,730,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,365,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481,889 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $23,849,000. State Street Corp raised its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,835,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,599,000 after buying an additional 950,150 shares during the period. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective 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.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of EBC opened at $17.50 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $17.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.75. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 7.54 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares has a 12-month low of $12.22 and a 12-month high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. This is a positive change from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.