Meridian Bank Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.13 (NASDAQ:MRBK)

Meridian Bank (NASDAQ:MRBK - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 24th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th will be given a dividend of 0.125 per share on Monday, August 18th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 11th.

Meridian Bank has a dividend payout ratio of 23.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Meridian Bank to earn $2.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.8%.

Meridian Bank Stock Performance

MRBK traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $14.86. The company had a trading volume of 17,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 63,722. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market cap of $167.65 million, a PE ratio of 9.24 and a beta of 0.67. Meridian Bank has a 12-month low of $10.04 and a 12-month high of $17.33. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $13.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $14.20.

Meridian Bank (NASDAQ:MRBK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $32.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.65 million. Meridian Bank had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 10.73%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meridian Bank will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Meridian Bank from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Meridian Bank from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insider Activity at Meridian Bank

In related news, Director Robert M. Casciato purchased 2,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.79 per share, with a total value of $27,580.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 215,396 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,970,310.84. This represents a 0.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 3,208 shares of company stock valued at $44,416. 14.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meridian Bank

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meridian Bank in the 1st quarter valued at $209,000. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Meridian Bank by 178.7% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 65,483 shares of the company's stock valued at $943,000 after purchasing an additional 41,984 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meridian Bank by 114.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 83,179 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,198,000 after purchasing an additional 44,332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.56% of the company's stock.

About Meridian Bank

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.