Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) Short Interest Down 50.3% in July

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,790,000 shares, a decrease of 50.3% from the July 15th total of 7,630,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sachetta LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 2nd quarter valued at $85,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 1st quarter valued at $126,000. Tortoise Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter valued at $134,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the 4th quarter valued at $164,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Performance

EBC stock traded up $0.27 on Tuesday, hitting $15.06. The company had a trading volume of 979,914 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,023,687. Eastern Bankshares has a 12-month low of $10.65 and a 12-month high of $17.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.78. The stock has a market cap of $2.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 0.89.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.14%. The company had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.92%. Eastern Bankshares’s payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

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.