Arizona State Retirement System Sells 810 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Arizona State Retirement System decreased its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,375 shares of the company’s stock after selling 810 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $630,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EBC. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 24.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,926,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,979,113 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 4.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,480,552 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,566,000 after acquiring an additional 66,050 shares during the period. Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter worth approximately $854,000. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% during the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 249,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,367,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,244,000 after acquiring an additional 100,820 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of EBC stock opened at $12.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.82 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50 day moving average is $13.20 and its 200 day moving average is $13.04. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.93 and a 52-week high of $15.07.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $160.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $153.53 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 40,288 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.08, for a total transaction of $526,967.04. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 42,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $549,883.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Profile

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.