Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,775 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,465 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,775 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after acquiring an additional 4,913,376 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,170,276 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,835,761 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,599,000 after purchasing an additional 950,150 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 23.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,587,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,203,000 after purchasing an additional 859,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,061,000 after buying an additional 467,663 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $17.29 on Tuesday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.22 and a 1-year high of $19.40. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $17.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.45 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. The business had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.92 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is currently 20.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Eastern Bankshares 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.