Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reiterates Market Perform Rating for Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI)

Key Points

• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a "Market Perform" rating on Shore Bancshares with a $20.00 target (about a 1.21% upside), while other analysts — including Weiss (upgraded to Buy) and Hovde (raised target to $22, Outperform) — leave the stock with a consensus "Moderate Buy" price target of $20.17.
• Shore reported a quarterly beat with $0.52 EPS vs. $0.48 expected and revenue above estimates, trades near $19.76 with a P/E of 11.1 and a market cap of about $660 million, and has a 52-week range of $11.47–$20.68.
• An insider (Director William E. Esham III) bought 5,000 shares at about $19.99 and insiders own 8.69% of the stock, while institutional ownership is high at 59.76% with notable stake increases from firms like Fourthstone, Goldman Sachs, Wellington, and AQR.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating restated by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $20.00 target price on the bank's stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods' price objective indicates a potential upside of 1.21% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on SHBI. Weiss Ratings upgraded Shore Bancshares from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday. Hovde Group upped their target price on Shore Bancshares from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $20.17.

Shore Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SHBI opened at $19.76 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $660.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10 and a beta of 0.85. Shore Bancshares has a one year low of $11.47 and a one year high of $20.68.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $59.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.55 million. Shore Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.50% and a net margin of 17.36%. Sell-side analysts expect that Shore Bancshares will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Shore Bancshares

In related news, Director William E. Esham III acquired 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $19.99 per share, for a total transaction of $99,950.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 5,510 shares of the company's stock, valued at $110,144.90. The trade was a 980.39% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 8.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SHBI. Fourthstone LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 61.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 918,202 shares of the bank's stock worth $16,234,000 after purchasing an additional 350,012 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 168.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 495,965 shares of the bank's stock worth $8,769,000 after purchasing an additional 311,266 shares during the last quarter. HoldCo Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Shore Bancshares during the second quarter worth $4,215,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 19.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,065,910 shares of the bank's stock worth $17,492,000 after purchasing an additional 175,282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 143.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,109 shares of the bank's stock worth $4,293,000 after purchasing an additional 160,850 shares during the last quarter. 59.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shore Bancshares Company Profile

Shore Bancshares, Inc NASDAQ: SHBI is the bank holding company for Shore Community Bank, a commercial bank headquartered in Mount Holly, New Jersey. The company provides a full suite of banking and financial services to individuals and businesses, including deposit accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage financing, and cash management solutions. Through its branch network, Shore Bancshares focuses on delivering community-oriented banking services with an emphasis on personalized customer relationships.

Shore Community Bank's lending portfolio includes commercial real estate, construction loans, agricultural loans, small business loans under government-sponsored programs, and conventional residential mortgages.

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