TD Cowen Cuts East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Price Target to $140.00

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) had its price objective decreased by TD Cowen from $141.00 to $140.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Stephens lifted their price objective on East West Bancorp from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on East West Bancorp from $111.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $126.00 price objective on shares of East West Bancorp in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $121.00 price objective on shares of East West Bancorp in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, East West Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.21.

East West Bancorp Trading Up 0.6%

EWBC stock opened at $114.07 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $112.67 and a 200-day moving average of $106.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $15.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.88. East West Bancorp has a twelve month low of $68.27 and a twelve month high of $119.73.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.48 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $754.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $745.04 million. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.72% and a net margin of 28.36%.During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.10 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that East West Bancorp will post 8.85 EPS for the current year.

East West Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 2nd will be given a $0.80 dividend. This is a boost from East West Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 2nd. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 25.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at East West Bancorp

In other news, COO Parker Shi sold 8,844 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.03, for a total transaction of $1,017,325.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 14,950 shares in the company, valued at $1,719,698.50. This represents a 37.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Ng sold 30,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.63, for a total value of $3,408,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 858,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,530,219.82. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 73,344 shares of company stock valued at $8,184,226 in the last three months. 1.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EWBC. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Park Place Capital Corp bought a new position in East West Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in East West Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 127.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 346 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the period. 89.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

East West Bancorp Company Profile

East West Bancorp, Inc is a bank holding company and the parent of East West Bank, one of the largest independent banks headquartered in Southern California. As a full-service commercial bank, it provides a broad range of financial products and services to business and individual customers, including commercial and residential real estate lending, working capital lines of credit, trade finance, and deposit and treasury management services. The company caters to both large and middle-market businesses, leveraging its expertise to serve clients engaged in cross-border trade and investment between the United States and Greater China.

Founded in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, East West Bank has grown steadily through organic expansion and strategic branch openings.