Wall Street Zen Upgrades East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) to “Hold”

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on EWBC. Truist Financial raised their price objective on East West Bancorp from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on East West Bancorp from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Cowen assumed coverage on East West Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $120.53.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

EWBC opened at $106.51 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.68 billion, a PE ratio of 12.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.52. East West Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $68.27 and a fifty-two week high of $113.95.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $705.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $702.04 million. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.09% and a net margin of 26.06%.The company’s revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.07 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that East West Bancorp will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other East West Bancorp news, insider Irene H. Oh sold 7,639 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.40, for a total value of $835,706.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,714 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,565,111.60. The trade was a 6.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total value of $105,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 14,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,572,270. This represents a 6.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 70,240 shares of company stock worth $7,379,678 over the last ninety days. 1.04% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On East West Bancorp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EWBC. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth about $639,000. Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 25.0% during the 1st quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 458,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,175,000 after purchasing an additional 91,864 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 106.3% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 48,077 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,315,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 126.8% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 714 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

About East West Bancorp

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.