Short Interest in Shore Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHBI) Declines By 14.2%

Shore Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHBI) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 167,000 shares, a decline of 14.2% from the December 31st total of 194,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 99,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Shore Bancshares Stock Up 3.5 %

Shore Bancshares stock opened at $16.35 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.86. Shore Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $10.06 and a fifty-two week high of $17.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $544.95 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.09. Shore Bancshares had a net margin of 13.44% and a return on equity of 10.40%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Shore Bancshares will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Shore Bancshares news, Director Konrad Wayson acquired 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $16.94 per share, for a total transaction of $50,820.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 53,266 shares in the company, valued at $902,326.04. This represents a 5.97 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 8.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shore Bancshares

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,208,740 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,839,000 after buying an additional 77,961 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of Shore Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $899,000. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Shore Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth about $147,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Shore Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at about $156,000. Finally, Creative Planning lifted its stake in Shore Bancshares by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 37,674 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $527,000 after purchasing an additional 8,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Shore Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $16.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Shore Bancshares Company Profile

Shore Bancshares, Inc operates as a bank holding company for the Shore United Bank, N.A. that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It offers checking, savings, overnight investment sweep, and money market accounts; and regular and IRA certificates of deposit, as well as CDARS programs and cash management services.