East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at DA Davidson in a research note issued to investors on Friday, AnalystRatingsNetwork reports. They currently have a $33.00 price objective on the stock, up from their previous price objective of $29.50. DA Davidson’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.73% from the company’s current price.
The analysts wrote, “We believe EWBC is well-positioned to continue to generate an above-peer ROE (12.4% estimated in 2013) given expected stability in credit costs, strong loan growth supporting spread revenue, and capital management via buybacks and dividends. Our pretax income growth rate of 3% in 2013 is below our projected 11% EPS growth due to the benefits of the year-to-date stock buyback (8 million shares) and expected additional repurchases over the remainder of the year. Our $33 price target represents a 2.3x multiple on 2014E TBV, in line with the current 2.25x multiple on 2Q13 TBV of $13.55. Our 2014 P/E multiple of 15x is elevated as bank multiples have expanded with the market beginning to discount a higher rate environment although the impact to 2014 EPS will be modest, in our opinion.”
Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at Sterne Agee reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of East West Bancorp in a research note to investors on Thursday. Separately, analysts at BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of East West Bancorp from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, July 9th. They now have a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, analysts at Credit Suisse reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of East West Bancorp in a research note to investors on Monday, July 1st. They now have a $27.00 price target on the stock.
Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. East West Bancorp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.78.
Shares of East West Bancorp (NASDAQ: EWBC) opened at 30.35 on Friday. East West Bancorp has a 52 week low of $19.68 and a 52 week high of $30.72. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $27.3. The company has a market cap of $4.120 billion and a P/E ratio of 15.65.
East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) last released its earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.02. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. East West Bancorp has set its Q3 guidance at $0.51-0.53 EPS and its FY13 guidance at $2.05-2.09 EPS. On average, analysts predict that East West Bancorp will post $2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 29th.
East West Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: EWBC) is a bank holding company.