Head-To-Head Survey: Eastern Bankshares (EBC) & Its Peers

Eastern Bankshares (NASDAQ:EBC) is one of 920 public companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Eastern Bankshares to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.7% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.9% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Eastern Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Eastern Bankshares and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eastern Bankshares	0	3	6	0	2.67
Eastern Bankshares Competitors	7458	30159	27707	1451	2.35

Eastern Bankshares presently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.66%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 17.32%. Given Eastern Bankshares’ peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Eastern Bankshares has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Eastern Bankshares and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eastern Bankshares	$1.33 billion	$88.22 million	12.87
Eastern Bankshares Competitors	$9.93 billion	$2.41 billion	18.77

Eastern Bankshares’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Eastern Bankshares. Eastern Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Eastern Bankshares and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eastern Bankshares	24.04%	9.37%	1.29%
Eastern Bankshares Competitors	15.63%	9.48%	0.93%

Volatility and Risk

Eastern Bankshares has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eastern Bankshares’ peers have a beta of 0.61, suggesting that their average stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Eastern Bankshares pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Eastern Bankshares pays out 34.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 9.5% and pay out 28.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Eastern Bankshares has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Eastern Bankshares lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

Eastern Bankshares peers beat Eastern Bankshares on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Eastern Bankshares

Eastern Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Eastern Bank that provides banking products and services primarily to retail, commercial, and small business customers. The company provides deposit accounts, interest checking accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and time certificates of deposit accounts. It also offers commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and construction, small business, residential real estate, and home equity loans; lines of credit; and other consumer loans comprising unsecured personal lines of credit, overdraft protection, automobile loans, home improvement loans, airplane loans, and other personal loans. In addition, the company provides trust, financial planning and portfolio management, automated lock box collection, cash management, and account reconciliation services; personal, business, and employee benefits insurance products. Eastern Bankshares, Inc. was founded in 1818 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.