Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Up 21.1% in July

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,630,000 shares, an increase of 21.1% from the June 30th total of 6,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 960,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.9 days.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Eastern Bankshares stock traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $16.57. The company had a trading volume of 1,418,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 994,130. The firm has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Eastern Bankshares has a one year low of $10.65 and a one year high of $17.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $14.21 and a 200 day moving average of $13.69.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.22. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.14%. The firm had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.45 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,367,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,244,000 after purchasing an additional 100,820 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,795,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,300,000 after acquiring an additional 401,027 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,794,640 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,885,000 after acquiring an additional 634,133 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,464,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,198,000 after acquiring an additional 559,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,993,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,248,000 after acquiring an additional 576,381 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 target price (up from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday.

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.