East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,310,000 shares, a decrease of 16.2% from the January 31st total of 3,950,000 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 881,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on EWBC shares. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $96.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $112.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut East West Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on East West Bancorp from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $110.38.

East West Bancorp Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:EWBC traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $90.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 999,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 856,479. East West Bancorp has a one year low of $68.78 and a one year high of $113.95. The business’s 50-day moving average is $98.11 and its 200-day moving average is $94.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $12.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.30.

East West Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.60 dividend. This is a positive change from East West Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is 28.81%.

Insider Activity at East West Bancorp

In other news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.53, for a total transaction of $133,275.75. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 14,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,521,643.21. The trade was a 8.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On East West Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,197,068 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,359,511,000 after buying an additional 70,503 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in East West Bancorp by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,990,468 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $765,167,000 after acquiring an additional 107,665 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in East West Bancorp by 1.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,314,994 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $439,763,000 after acquiring an additional 75,024 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,418,840 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $423,148,000 after purchasing an additional 186,887 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,018,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $289,052,000 after purchasing an additional 437,676 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

East West Bancorp Company 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.