JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,591,712 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 86,810 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.74% of Eastern Bankshares worth $26,088,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 5,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 44,452 shares of the company’s stock worth $621,000 after buying an additional 814 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 20,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 6,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:EBC opened at $17.10 on Wednesday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.55. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a PE ratio of 7.37 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is 20.69%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value 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. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

About Eastern Bankshares

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.