16,840 Shares in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Purchased by Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 16,840 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,122,356 shares of the company's stock valued at $347,111,000 after buying an additional 90,293 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,932,470 shares of the company's stock worth $119,585,000 after purchasing an additional 259,476 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,080,479 shares of the company's stock worth $87,638,000 after purchasing an additional 960,591 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,710,634 shares of the company's stock worth $64,008,000 after purchasing an additional 217,701 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total transaction of $36,628.80. Following the transaction, the director owned 29,011 shares in the company, valued at $452,571.60. The trade was a 7.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC traded down $0.46 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $15.73. 1,135,988 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,221,216. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of -24.32 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.18. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.51 and a 52-week high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 negative net margin of 15.56% and a positive return on equity of 6.42%. The company had revenue of $222.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $226.98 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 3rd. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. Eastern Bankshares's payout ratio is -80.00%.

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.