Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 19.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,793 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,123 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EBC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,196,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 112.1% during the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 2,666,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,997,000 after buying an additional 1,409,471 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,080,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,638,000 after buying an additional 960,591 shares in the last quarter. Azora Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter worth about $13,499,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 203.7% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 900,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,533,000 after buying an additional 603,991 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.3%

EBC stock opened at $16.01 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $15.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.63 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $13.51 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $222.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $226.98 million. Analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently -80.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total transaction of $36,628.80. Following the transaction, the director owned 29,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $452,571.60. This represents a 7.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by 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.