M&T Bank Corp Takes Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 31,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $511,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in EBC. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 284.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 617,306 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,118,000 after acquiring an additional 456,586 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 127.8% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the third quarter valued at $180,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter valued at about $232,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the third quarter worth about $3,404,000. 71.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

NASDAQ EBC opened at $17.79 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $17.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.12. The firm has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.67 and a beta of 0.92. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $12.22 and a 1 year high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a $0.12 dividend. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is 20.69%.

Eastern Bankshares 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.