Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 204,009 shares of the company's stock after selling 17,047 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.10% of Eastern Bankshares worth $3,519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in EBC. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,791 shares of the company's stock worth $358,000 after purchasing an additional 2,196 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,786,337 shares of the company's stock worth $324,064,000 after purchasing an additional 355,262 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 130,818 shares of the company's stock worth $2,257,000 after purchasing an additional 8,513 shares during the period. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 62.6% in the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 730,493 shares of the company's stock worth $12,601,000 after purchasing an additional 281,212 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter worth $178,000. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of EBC traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $14.85. 2,178,287 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,084,333. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.54 and a 1-year high of $19.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.17 billion, a PE ratio of 22.16 and a beta of 0.96. The business's 50 day moving average price is $15.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.15.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 6.02%. The company had revenue of $222.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $226.98 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Eastern Bankshares's payout ratio is 71.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $308,000. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

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.