Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 20,792 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,020,834 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,792 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.94% of Eastern Bankshares worth $34,859,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 72,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,254,000 after acquiring an additional 10,130 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter valued at about $277,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,259,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,722,000 after buying an additional 142,999 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 36,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 6,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 301,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,203,000 after buying an additional 2,887 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eastern Bankshares news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

NASDAQ EBC opened at $16.27 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.28 and a beta of 0.95. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $12.22 and a 1 year high of $19.40. The business’s 50-day moving average is $17.64 and its 200 day moving average is $17.36.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.64%.

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.