Short Interest in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Expands By 24.2%

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,370,000 shares, a growth of 24.2% from the April 30th total of 5,130,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.6 days. Approximately 3.0% of the company's shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.68, for a total value of $36,816.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,187 shares of the company's stock, valued at $426,292.16. The trade was a 7.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO R David Rosato purchased 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eastern Bankshares

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 31,797 shares of the company's stock worth $521,000 after buying an additional 768 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 14,599 shares of the company's stock worth $239,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 92.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,815 shares of the company's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 19.9% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,793 shares of the company's stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 2,123 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $14.67. 441,754 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,243,961. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.75. Eastern Bankshares has a fifty-two week low of $12.66 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40. The stock has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.90 and a beta of 0.95.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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, analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 3rd. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -80.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

Eastern Bankshares Company 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.