Brown Advisory Inc. Acquires 469,743 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 12.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,180,377 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 469,743 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. owned approximately 1.96% of Eastern Bankshares worth $68,558,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,196,000. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 112.1% during the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 2,666,519 shares of the company's stock worth $45,997,000 after acquiring an additional 1,409,471 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,080,479 shares of the company's stock worth $87,638,000 after acquiring an additional 960,591 shares during the last quarter. Azora Capital LP bought a new position in Eastern Bankshares during the fourth quarter valued at $13,499,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 203.7% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 900,442 shares of the company's stock valued at $15,533,000 after purchasing an additional 603,991 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EBC opened at $16.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.51 and a 12 month high of $19.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.23. The stock has a market cap of $3.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.62 and a beta of 0.94.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $222.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $226.98 million. Eastern Bankshares had a negative net margin of 15.56% and a positive return on equity of 6.42%. As a group, analysts predict 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 dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a positive change from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio is presently -80.00%.

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.

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