Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Trims Stock Holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its holdings in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC - Free Report) by 62.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,117 shares of the company's stock after selling 34,824 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GTS Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter worth approximately $206,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in Eastern Bankshares by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 402,624 shares of the company's stock worth $6,945,000 after acquiring an additional 86,041 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,791,465 shares of the company's stock worth $30,903,000 after acquiring an additional 60,826 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 49.0% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 54,348 shares of the company's stock valued at $938,000 after acquiring an additional 17,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 603,991 shares in the last quarter. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

Shares of EBC traded up $0.37 on Friday, hitting $14.93. 1,395,063 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,161,457. The company has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.67. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a one year low of $12.66 and a one year high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $222.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $226.98 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. On average, equities 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 3rd. This is a boost from Eastern Bankshares's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.48%. Eastern Bankshares's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -80.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Luis Borgen sold 2,348 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.60, for a total transaction of $36,628.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 29,011 shares of the company's stock, 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 through this link. Also, CFO R David Rosato purchased 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $15.40 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,000. The trade was 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 owned by corporate insiders.

Eastern Bankshares 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.