Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) in a report issued on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a $19.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $17.00.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $15.66 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $14.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market cap of $2.77 billion, a PE ratio of 5.49 and a beta of 0.89. Eastern Bankshares has a 52-week low of $10.65 and a 52-week high of $17.26.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.14%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 15.44%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 0.9% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 257,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,600,000 after purchasing an additional 2,320 shares in the last quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,717,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $85,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,233,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after acquiring an additional 2,173 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

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.