Victory Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Victory Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 3.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,655 shares of the company’s stock after selling 945 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 11.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,795,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,300,000 after acquiring an additional 401,027 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,794,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,885,000 after purchasing an additional 634,133 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,464,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,198,000 after purchasing an additional 559,754 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,993,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,248,000 after purchasing an additional 576,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,231,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,682,000 after purchasing an additional 193,151 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on EBC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 target price (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Insider Transactions at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total value of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:EBC opened at $16.90 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.93 and a beta of 0.89. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a one year low of $10.65 and a one year high of $17.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.06%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

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.