Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) Rating Increased to Neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) was upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $18.50 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $14.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 24.92% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (up previously from $17.00) on shares of Eastern Bankshares in a report on Monday, July 29th.

Eastern Bankshares Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of EBC stock opened at $14.81 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Eastern Bankshares has a 1 year low of $10.65 and a 1 year high of $17.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.20 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, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. Eastern Bankshares had a net margin of 48.38% and a return on equity of 5.14%. The business had revenue of $232.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Eastern Bankshares will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Arizona State Retirement System grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 1.9% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 44,452 shares of the company’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 814 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Eastern Bankshares by 6.0% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,000 after acquiring an additional 2,173 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 8.5% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 27,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,000 after buying an additional 2,193 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in Eastern Bankshares by 0.9% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 257,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,600,000 after buying an additional 2,320 shares during the period. Finally, Sachetta LLC bought a new position in shares of Eastern Bankshares during the second quarter valued at about $35,000. 71.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.