HighTower Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 123.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 37,585 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,781 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in EBC. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,913,376 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter valued at about $23,849,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position 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 worth $67,599,000 after buying an additional 950,150 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 58.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,079,028 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,065,000 after buying an additional 764,881 shares during the period. Finally, Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,717,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

EBC opened at $16.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $17.73 and its 200 day moving average is $16.13. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. The business had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.69%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.