Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) Announces $0.13 Quarterly Dividend

Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 27th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.125 per share on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th.

Meridian has increased its dividend payment by an average of 20.3% annually over the last three years. Meridian has a payout ratio of 22.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Meridian to earn $1.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.6%.

Meridian Stock Up 3.2 %

NASDAQ MRBK traded up $0.51 during trading on Monday, hitting $16.41. 70,278 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 37,345. The company has a market capitalization of $184.39 million, a P/E ratio of 16.24 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.21. Meridian has a 12 month low of $8.26 and a 12 month high of $17.33.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.14. Meridian had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 6.99%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meridian will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MRBK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Meridian from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Meridian from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th.

About Meridian

Meridian Corporation operates as the holding company for Meridian Bank that provides commercial banking products and services in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida, and Maryland. The company offers various deposit products, such as demand non-interest bearing, demand interest bearing, savings accounts, money market accounts, and time deposits.