Bank of New York Mellon Corp Reduces Stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 1.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,243,545 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,678 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.58% of Eastern Bankshares worth $20,394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,122,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,111,000 after purchasing an additional 90,293 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,786,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $324,064,000 after buying an additional 355,262 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,932,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,585,000 after buying an additional 259,476 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.3% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,080,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,638,000 after acquiring an additional 960,591 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,710,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,008,000 after acquiring an additional 217,701 shares during the period. 71.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total value of $36,628.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 29,011 shares in the company, valued at $452,571.60. This represents a 7.49% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective 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

EBC opened at $15.97 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.17. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.51 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.57 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. Eastern Bankshares had a positive return on equity of 6.42% and a negative net margin of 15.56%. The company had revenue of $222.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $226.98 million. As a group, analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently -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.