Dark Forest Capital Management LP Takes Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 27,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $390,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,804,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,231,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,682,000 after purchasing an additional 193,151 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter worth approximately $24,543,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.8% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,993,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,248,000 after purchasing an additional 576,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 63,717.2% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 63,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $883,000 after purchasing an additional 63,080 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ EBC opened at $16.11 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $16.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.65 and a fifty-two week high of $17.26.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The company had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.06% and a net margin of 48.38%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.44%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on EBC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price objective (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total value of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

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.