Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 2,795 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 20.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,670 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,795 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $184,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co now owns 24,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 6,595 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 20,971 shares of the company’s stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, January 27th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock opened at $16.22 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.38. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $12.22 and a 12-month high of $19.40. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.96%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is 71.64%.

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.