East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) Vice Chairman Sells $1,000,400.00 in Stock

East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Vice Chairman Douglas Paul Krause sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.04, for a total transaction of $1,000,400.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 45,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,820. This represents a 18.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

East West Bancorp Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:EWBC traded down $0.46 on Tuesday, reaching $99.96. 445,526 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 993,362. The company has a market capitalization of $13.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.02, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $68.27 and a 12 month high of $113.95. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $104.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $99.85.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $627.36 million during the quarter. East West Bancorp had a net margin of 27.16% and a return on equity of 15.55%. Equities analysts predict that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 8.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

East West Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.46%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On East West Bancorp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EWBC. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in East West Bancorp by 155.6% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,714,661 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $692,468,000 after purchasing an additional 4,696,157 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in East West Bancorp during the second quarter valued at approximately $174,431,000. Earnest Partners LLC purchased a new position in East West Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $137,390,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in East West Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $83,330,000. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in East West Bancorp by 39.6% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,241,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $327,271,000 after purchasing an additional 920,159 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of East West Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of East West Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $124.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of East West Bancorp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $124.08.

East West Bancorp Company Profile

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.