Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Down 6.1% in August

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, a decline of 6.1% from the July 31st total of 2,620,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 722,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the second quarter worth about $56,000. TimeScale Financial Inc. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 28.8% during the first quarter. TimeScale Financial Inc. now owns 4,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,016 shares during the period. Knott David M Jr bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the first quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, State of Wyoming bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter worth about $91,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.03% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 3.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $13.96 on Friday. Eastern Bankshares has a 52 week low of $9.93 and a 52 week high of $21.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a PE ratio of -45.03 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $13.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $195.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $181.17 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 25.57% and a return on equity of 8.49%. Analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 31st. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -129.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd.

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. It operates in two segments, Banking Business and Insurance Agency Business. The company provides deposit accounts, interest checking accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and time certificates of deposit accounts.