East West Bancorp, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.55 (NASDAQ:EWBC)

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.55 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.85%.

East West Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 20.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 4 years. East West Bancorp has a payout ratio of 26.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect East West Bancorp to earn $8.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.8%.

East West Bancorp Trading Up 2.5 %

East West Bancorp stock opened at $77.20 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $74.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. East West Bancorp has a one year low of $41.12 and a one year high of $79.54. The stock has a market cap of $10.74 billion, a PE ratio of 9.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.39.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.08. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 17.66% and a net margin of 26.78%. The firm had revenue of $644.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $636.77 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp will post 7.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other East West Bancorp news, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,625 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.26, for a total value of $125,547.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $797,400.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other East West Bancorp news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $147,160.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,739 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,231,655.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,625 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.26, for a total value of $125,547.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,321 shares in the company, valued at $797,400.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EWBC. Truist Financial raised their price objective on East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on East West Bancorp from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Stephens raised their price objective on East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their price objective on East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.38.

About East West Bancorp

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.