Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Up 12.8% in January

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,130,000 shares, a growth of 12.8% from the December 31st total of 3,660,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 940,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock traded down $0.29 on Monday, hitting $18.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 869,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,012,265. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.97. Eastern Bankshares has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The company has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.97 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. As a group, analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.64%.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the sale, the director now owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EBC. Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 378,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,205,000 after acquiring an additional 65,764 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter valued at $1,943,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,061,000 after buying an additional 467,663 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,754,000 after buying an additional 1,170,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,088,000 after buying an additional 86,810 shares during the period. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastern Bankshares Company Profile

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.