East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) Shares Sold by ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in shares of East West Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:EWBC) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 250,585 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,981 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in East West Bancorp were worth $18,030,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in East West Bancorp by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $219,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 69,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,590,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 66.7% in the 4th quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of East West Bancorp by 65.1% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at East West Bancorp

In other news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 2,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $147,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,739 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,231,655.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Jack C. Liu sold 2,000 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $147,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 16,739 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,231,655.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Molly Campbell sold 1,625 shares of East West Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.26, for a total value of $125,547.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $797,400.46. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on EWBC. Piper Sandler raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $86.00 target price on shares of East West Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Compass Point raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Truist Financial raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on East West Bancorp from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, East West Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.15.

East West Bancorp Stock Up 1.5 %

EWBC stock traded up $1.08 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $72.88. 1,719,132 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,218,754. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. East West Bancorp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $41.12 and a 12-month high of $79.54. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $74.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.39.

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. East West Bancorp had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 29.11%. The company had revenue of $654.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.37 EPS. East West Bancorp’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that East West Bancorp, Inc. will post 7.86 EPS for the current year.

East West Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were given a $0.55 dividend. This is a positive change from East West Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 1st. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. East West Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.89%.

East West Bancorp 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.