Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Stake Increased by State Street Corp

State Street Corp boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 20.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,170,276 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned 3.23% of Eastern Bankshares worth $113,754,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter worth $182,000. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 127.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 43,755 shares of the company’s stock valued at $612,000 after buying an additional 24,480 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 21.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 225,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,146,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,064,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,888,000 after buying an additional 32,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 6.0% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,000 after acquiring an additional 2,173 shares during the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total transaction of $106,033.28. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of EBC stock opened at $17.95 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 0.92. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.22 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40.

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

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a positive change from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target 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.