Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) Short Interest Update

Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,800 shares, a decrease of 20.0% from the May 15th total of 16,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 11,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.1 days.

Institutional Trading of Meridian

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Banc Funds Co. LLC raised its holdings in Meridian by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 782,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,879,000 after purchasing an additional 53,990 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Meridian by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 92,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after buying an additional 3,114 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meridian by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 54,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $538,000 after buying an additional 2,396 shares during the period. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Meridian in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $670,000. Finally, Strid Group LLC acquired a new position in Meridian during the first quarter worth $431,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.56% of the company’s stock.

Meridian Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MRBK traded up $0.16 on Friday, reaching $10.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,999 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,563. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Meridian has a 52-week low of $8.26 and a 52-week high of $14.24. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $9.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $115.70 million, a P/E ratio of 9.85 and a beta of 0.72.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. Meridian had a return on equity of 7.59% and a net margin of 6.75%. The company had revenue of $45.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.68 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meridian will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

Meridian Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.84%. Meridian’s payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

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.