Morgan Stanley Cuts East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Price Target to $118.00

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $127.00 to $118.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

EWBC has been the subject of several other reports. Stephens downgraded shares of East West Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $96.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of East West Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of East West Bancorp from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $112.00 target price on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.31.

East West Bancorp Price Performance

EWBC opened at $87.97 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. East West Bancorp has a 52-week low of $68.78 and a 52-week high of $113.95. The company has a 50 day moving average of $96.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $94.80. The company has a market cap of $12.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.28.

East West Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. This is a boost from East West Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 28.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other East West Bancorp news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 725 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.50, for a total transaction of $75,762.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,654,444. This represents a 4.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Ng sold 20,181 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.01, for a total transaction of $1,816,491.81. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 988,133 shares in the company, valued at $88,941,851.33. This trade represents a 2.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 42,362 shares of company stock valued at $3,842,022. Company insiders own 1.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On East West Bancorp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EWBC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $166,590,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 1,667.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 670,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,174,000 after acquiring an additional 632,245 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,383,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $228,269,000 after acquiring an additional 447,057 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of East West Bancorp by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,018,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $289,052,000 after acquiring an additional 437,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of East West Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $32,138,000. Institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

About East West Bancorp

East West Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for East West Bank that provides a range of personal and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, and Other.