Teacher Retirement System of Texas Makes New $463,000 Investment in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 28,252 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $463,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in EBC. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 67.1% in the 1st quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 46,245 shares of the company’s stock valued at $758,000 after acquiring an additional 18,572 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter worth $277,000. Barrett & Company Inc. bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter worth $134,000. Grimes & Company Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the first quarter worth about $246,000. Finally, Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $174,000. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total transaction of $36,628.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 29,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $452,571.60. This represents a 7.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $15.69 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.14 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.51 and a 12 month high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $222.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $226.98 million. Eastern Bankshares had a positive return on equity of 6.42% and a negative net margin of 15.56%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a positive change from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -80.00%.

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.