Great Lakes Advisors LLC Has $17.75 Million Position in East West Bancorp, Inc. $EWBC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) by 44.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 197,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,667 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in East West Bancorp were worth $17,749,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in EWBC. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 6,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $599,000 after buying an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 386,417 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,003,000 after buying an additional 4,977 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at about $447,000. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 3,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 21,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,050,000 after buying an additional 3,260 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on EWBC. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Barclays increased their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $124.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $116.08.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EWBC opened at $109.61 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $68.27 and a 1 year high of $113.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $104.53 and a 200-day moving average of $94.22.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $705.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $702.04 million. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.09% and a net margin of 26.06%.East West Bancorp’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.07 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 28.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.38, for a total transaction of $4,135,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 888,314 shares in the company, valued at $91,833,901.32. This represents a 4.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Irene H. Oh sold 15,051 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.73, for a total transaction of $1,606,393.23. Following the transaction, the insider owned 113,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,098,165.69. This trade represents a 11.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,240 shares of company stock valued at $7,379,678 over the last quarter. 1.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.