Eastern Bankshares, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.12 (NASDAQ:EBC)

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd.

Eastern Bankshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years. Eastern Bankshares has a dividend payout ratio of 32.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Eastern Bankshares to earn $1.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.6%.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ EBC traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $17.85. 1,378,238 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 965,715. The company has a 50 day moving average of $17.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.83 billion, a PE ratio of 7.69 and a beta of 0.94. Eastern Bankshares has a 12 month low of $12.22 and a 12 month high of $19.40.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 38.00% and a return on equity of 4.49%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Eastern Bankshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Deborah C. Jackson sold 5,713 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.56, for a total value of $106,033.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 67,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,791.04. This represents a 7.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.