Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.12 Per Share

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.12 per share on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 36.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Eastern Bankshares to earn $1.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.6%.

Eastern Bankshares Price Performance

Shares of EBC stock opened at $18.64 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $17.24 and a 200 day moving average of $15.76. Eastern Bankshares has a 1 year low of $11.86 and a 1 year high of $19.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 0.89.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $299.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.92 million. Eastern Bankshares had a return on equity of 4.49% and a net margin of 38.00%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eastern Bankshares will post 0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Eastern Bankshares from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $18.50 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Eastern Bankshares

In related news, President Quincy Lee Miller sold 12,676 shares of Eastern Bankshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was 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. 1.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.