Captrust Financial Advisors Acquires New Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Captrust Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 18,623 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $305,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $182,000. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 127.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 43,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $612,000 after acquiring an additional 24,480 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 21.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 225,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,146,000 after acquiring an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,064,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,888,000 after purchasing an additional 32,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 6.0% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,000 after purchasing an additional 2,173 shares during the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $17.95 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $17.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.04. The company has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a PE ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 0.92. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $12.22 and a 12-month high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted 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 company had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.67%. This is a positive change from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.69%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares 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 sale, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.