Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Trims Stake in Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC)

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 216,598 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,806 shares during the quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Eastern Bankshares were worth $3,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Eastern Bankshares in the fourth quarter valued at $37,196,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Eastern Bankshares by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,815,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,316,000 after acquiring an additional 223,681 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 293.0% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 196,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,390,000 after acquiring an additional 146,500 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Eastern Bankshares by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,122,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,111,000 after acquiring an additional 90,293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 38,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $659,000 after acquiring an additional 7,517 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.68% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO R David Rosato bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.40 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,000. This represents a 100.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Eastern Bankshares Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:EBC opened at $16.42 on Wednesday. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $12.22 and a fifty-two week high of $19.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.37. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.51 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that Eastern Bankshares, Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Eastern Bankshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.92%. 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.