11,198 Shares in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Acquired by FORA Capital LLC

FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,072,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 38,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,687,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in East West Bancorp by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,336 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 11,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,128,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 40,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,849,000 after buying an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,583 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the period. 89.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on EWBC. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley lowered East West Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $118.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut East West Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 20,181 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.01, for a total value of $1,816,491.81. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 988,133 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,941,851.33. This represents a 2.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 60,181 shares of company stock worth $5,416,694 over the last three months. 1.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

East West Bancorp stock opened at $89.67 on Friday. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.27 and a 52-week high of $113.95. The company has a market cap of $12.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.76, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $84.06 and its 200 day moving average is $94.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.04. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 25.73% and a return on equity of 15.71%. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.02 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 28.64%.

East West Bancorp Profile

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.