Boston Trust Walden Corp Sells 8,047 Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC)

Boston Trust Walden Corp lessened its holdings in East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC - Free Report) by 1.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 455,040 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 8,047 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned about 0.33% of East West Bancorp worth $40,844,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EWBC. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of East West Bancorp by 54.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 4,926 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $472,000 after purchasing an additional 1,740 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in East West Bancorp by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 40,225 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,852,000 after acquiring an additional 4,863 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its stake in East West Bancorp by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,709 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $547,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp raised its stake in East West Bancorp by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 17,795 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,704,000 after acquiring an additional 5,781 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in East West Bancorp by 73.2% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 414 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.53% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other East West Bancorp news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 40,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.43, for a total transaction of $3,857,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 928,314 shares of the company's stock, valued at $89,517,319.02. The trade was a 4.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Lisa L. Kim sold 2,100 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.04, for a total transaction of $199,584.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,849 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,411,248.96. The trade was a 12.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EWBC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of East West Bancorp from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $118.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of East West Bancorp from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $118.00 to $100.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. They set a "buy" rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. They set a "hold" rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $107.85.

East West Bancorp Trading Up 2.1%

EWBC stock opened at $93.61 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $88.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.61. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.27 and a fifty-two week high of $113.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $12.90 billion, a PE ratio of 11.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.92.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.04. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 25.73% and a return on equity of 15.23%. The firm had revenue of $693.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.02 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 2nd. East West Bancorp's payout ratio is 28.64%.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.

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