Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) Short Interest Update

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

Institutional Trading of Meridian

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRBK. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted 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 worth $1,801,000 after purchasing an additional 10,514 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in Meridian during the third quarter worth about $128,000. Banc Funds Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Meridian by 4.7% during the third quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 829,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,480,000 after acquiring an additional 37,450 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Meridian by 10.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 40,406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,675 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meridian by 3.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 93,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,838 shares in the last quarter. 58.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Meridian Price Performance

Shares of MRBK traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.31. The company had a trading volume of 33,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,589. The company’s 50-day moving average is $14.93 and its 200-day moving average is $13.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $172.08 million, a P/E ratio of 15.16 and a beta of 0.81. Meridian has a twelve month low of $8.26 and a twelve month high of $17.33.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $51.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.57 million. Meridian had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 6.99%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Meridian will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Meridian Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Meridian’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.51%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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