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

Shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBCGet Free Report) 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.

Read Our Latest Research Report on EWBC

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

(Get Free Report

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.

See Also

Analyst Recommendations for East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC)

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