Whittier Trust Co. Invests $172,000 in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Whittier Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $172,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Xponance Inc. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 13,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 1,203 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 152.1% in the 4th quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 80,311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,385,000 after acquiring an additional 48,456 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,505,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,221,000 after acquiring an additional 60,746 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $312,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 381,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,585,000 after acquiring an additional 3,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other Eastern Bankshares news, CFO R David Rosato acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $308,000. This trade represents a 100.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target (up previously from $21.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of EBC stock opened at $16.59 on Monday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.22 and a 52-week high of $19.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $17.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76 and a beta of 0.95.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.05. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 6.02% and a net margin of 11.07%. Analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.64%.

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.