Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) Short Interest Up 36.9% in January

Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,900 shares, an increase of 36.9% from the December 31st total of 6,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 22,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on MRBK. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Meridian from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Meridian from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Meridian Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:MRBK opened at $16.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Meridian has a 1-year low of $8.26 and a 1-year high of $17.33. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.25 and a 200 day moving average of $13.33. The firm has a market cap of $187.93 million, a PE ratio of 11.53 and a beta of 0.81.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.14. Meridian had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 10.01%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Meridian will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meridian Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.99%. Meridian’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Banc Funds Co. LLC boosted its position in Meridian by 4.7% during the third quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 829,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,480,000 after purchasing an additional 37,450 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Meridian by 6.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 171,249 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,801,000 after buying an additional 10,514 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meridian by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 93,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after buying an additional 2,838 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Meridian by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 40,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 3,675 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Meridian during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $128,000. 58.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meridian Company Profile

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.