East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $111.31.

EWBC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Compass Point raised their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $96.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $127.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other East West Bancorp news, CEO Dominic Ng sold 20,181 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were 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 approximately $88,941,851.33. The trade was a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Jack C. Liu sold 1,275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.53, for a total transaction of $133,275.75. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,557 shares in the company, valued at $1,521,643.21. This trade represents a 8.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 42,362 shares of company stock worth $3,842,022. 1.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of East West Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EWBC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $166,590,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 1,667.7% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 670,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,174,000 after purchasing an additional 632,245 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,383,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $228,269,000 after purchasing an additional 447,057 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,018,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $289,052,000 after purchasing an additional 437,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of East West Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,138,000. 89.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

East West Bancorp Stock Performance

East West Bancorp stock opened at $87.97 on Friday. East West Bancorp has a 12-month low of $68.78 and a 12-month high of $113.95. The company has a market capitalization of $12.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $96.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $94.80.

East West Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given 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 an increase from East West Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. East West Bancorp’s payout ratio is 28.81%.

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.