William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 4,768 Shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

William Blair Investment Management LLC decreased its position in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 0.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,519,071 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,768 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.43% of Eastern Bankshares worth $35,217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,795,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,300,000 after purchasing an additional 401,027 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,794,640 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,885,000 after acquiring an additional 634,133 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,464,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,198,000 after acquiring an additional 559,754 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 23.8% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,993,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,248,000 after acquiring an additional 576,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,231,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,682,000 after purchasing an additional 193,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $16.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.71 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.19. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.65 and a fifty-two week high of $17.26.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The company had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.45 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 5.06% and a net margin of 48.38%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. Eastern Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.44%.

Insider Activity at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total value of $211,182.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EBC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price target (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research report on Monday, July 29th.

About Eastern Bankshares

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.