Hennessy Advisors Inc. Has $3.71 Million Position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lessened its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 215,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $3,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 36.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,431,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,085,000 after purchasing an additional 4,913,376 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,940,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170,276 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,835,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,599,000 after acquiring an additional 950,150 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,587,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,203,000 after acquiring an additional 859,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,969,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,061,000 after purchasing an additional 467,663 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 67,284 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,791.04. The trade was a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.1 %

EBC opened at $17.50 on Friday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.22 and a 1-year high of $19.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 7.54 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $17.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.68.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. The company had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.92 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is presently 20.69%.

About Eastern Bankshares

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.