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

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.12 per share on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is an increase from Eastern Bankshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11.

Eastern Bankshares has a payout ratio of 30.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Eastern Bankshares to earn $1.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.8%.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ EBC traded down $0.80 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $15.92. 1,549,827 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,005,237. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Eastern Bankshares has a 12 month low of $10.65 and a 12 month high of $17.49. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.87. The company has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 0.89.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.06%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.11 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on EBC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 target price (up from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In other news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.66, for a total transaction of $211,182.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.15% of the company’s stock.

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.