Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Up 19.5% in February

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,200,000 shares, an increase of 19.5% from the February 13th total of 4,350,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, CFO R David Rosato acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $308,000. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after buying an additional 4,913,376 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at $37,196,000. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted 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 valued at $28,365,000 after buying an additional 1,481,889 shares in the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 112.1% in the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 2,666,519 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,997,000 after buying an additional 1,409,471 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after buying an additional 1,170,276 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ:EBC traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $16.57. The company had a trading volume of 903,408 shares, compared to its average volume of 977,152. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.73 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.35. Eastern Bankshares has a twelve month low of $12.22 and a twelve month high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 6.02%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 71.64%.

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.