Irene H. Oh Sells 10,000 Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Stock

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) insider Irene H. Oh sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.58, for a total transaction of $775,800.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 127,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,867,632.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

East West Bancorp stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $77.44. 727,851 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,207,378. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $42.60 and a 52-week high of $79.54. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $75.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $10.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.78, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.38.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.08. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 26.78%. The business had revenue of $644.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $636.77 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 7.99 earnings per share for the current year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.71%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On East West Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 40,757.7% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 103,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,437,000 after acquiring an additional 103,117 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 31,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after acquiring an additional 1,501 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 92.7% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 48,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,560,000 after acquiring an additional 23,361 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,243,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $803,502,000 after acquiring an additional 215,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trillium Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Trillium Asset Management LLC now owns 279,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,715,000 after acquiring an additional 30,466 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Compass Point raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Barclays assumed coverage on East West Bancorp in a report on Friday, March 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $106.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $90.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.08.

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.