East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $116.6429.

EWBC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. DA Davidson raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $124.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gary Teo sold 6,550 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.47, for a total value of $697,378.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 12,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,302,660.45. The trade was a 34.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 14,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,572,270. The trade was a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,240 shares of company stock worth $7,379,678 in the last three months. 1.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On East West Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EWBC. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 155.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,714,661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $692,468,000 after buying an additional 4,696,157 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the second quarter valued at $174,431,000. Earnest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the first quarter valued at $137,390,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the first quarter valued at $83,330,000. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 39.6% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,241,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $327,271,000 after buying an additional 920,159 shares in the last quarter. 89.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ:EWBC opened at $105.76 on Thursday. East West Bancorp has a one year low of $68.27 and a one year high of $113.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $14.58 billion, a PE ratio of 12.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $104.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.50.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.05. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.09% and a net margin of 26.06%.The firm had revenue of $705.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $702.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.07 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that East West Bancorp will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.04%.

East West Bancorp Company Profile

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.