East West Bancorp - EWBC Stock Forecast, Price & News

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. It operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other. The company accepts various deposit products, such as personal and business checking and savings accounts, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include mortgage and home equity, commercial and residential real estate, working capital lines of credit, construction, trade finance, letters of credit, commercial business, affordable housing loans, asset-based lending, asset-backed finance, project finance, and equipment financing, as well as financing services to clients needing a financial bridge to facilitate their business transactions between the United States and China. The company also provides various wealth management, treasury management, foreign exchange, and interest rate and commodity risk hedging services; and mobile and online banking services. As of January 27, 2022, it operated approximately 120 locations in the United States and China; full-service branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shantou, and Shenzhen; and representative offices in Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Taipei, and Xiamen. East West Bancorp, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

EWBC traded up $0.76 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $74.66. 503,571 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 993,879. The company's 50-day moving average is $68.16 and its 200 day moving average is $75.30. East West Bancorp has a 52 week low of $61.65 and a 52 week high of $93.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.62 billion, a PE ratio of 11.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.13. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 45.32% and a return on equity of 16.45%. The company had revenue of $551.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $525.37 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.57 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 23.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that East West Bancorp will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 1st will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 29th. East West Bancorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.39%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on East West Bancorp from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 22nd. Wedbush raised their price target on East West Bancorp to $80.00 in a report on Friday, July 22nd. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $100.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $102.00 to $79.00 in a research note on Monday, July 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of East West Bancorp to $74.00 in a report on Monday, July 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $88.63.