Jennison Associates LLC Sells 116,653 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 2.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,912,244 shares of the company's stock after selling 116,653 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned 1.83% of Eastern Bankshares worth $64,161,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in EBC. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position 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 during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 836.6% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 6,219 shares of the company's stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 5,555 shares during the period. Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $134,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter worth about $172,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total value of $36,628.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 29,011 shares in the company, valued at $452,571.60. This represents a 7.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on 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 Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Eastern Bankshares stock traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.01. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,369,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,206,204. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.63 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.51 and a 1-year high of $19.40.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.01. Eastern Bankshares had a positive return on equity of 6.42% and a negative net margin of 15.56%. The company had revenue of $222.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $226.98 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Eastern Bankshares's 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.