Northern Lights Acquisition (NLIT) Competitors

Meridian Bank (NASDAQ:MRBK) and Northern Lights Acquisition (NASDAQ:NLIT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Is MRBK or NLIT more profitable?

Meridian Bank has a net margin of 8.09% compared to Northern Lights Acquisition's net margin of 0.00%. Northern Lights Acquisition's return on equity of 69.39% beat Meridian Bank's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Meridian Bank	8.09%	9.52%	0.67%
Northern Lights Acquisition	N/A	69.39%	1.65%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of MRBK or NLIT?

58.6% of Meridian Bank shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Northern Lights Acquisition shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.4% of Meridian Bank shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, MRBK or NLIT?

Meridian Bank has higher revenue and earnings than Northern Lights Acquisition.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Meridian Bank	$197.37M	0.79	$16.35M	$1.42	9.68
Northern Lights Acquisition	N/A	N/A	$1.25M	N/A	N/A

Does the media prefer MRBK or NLIT?

In the previous week, Meridian Bank had 3 more articles in the media than Northern Lights Acquisition. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Meridian Bank and 0 mentions for Northern Lights Acquisition. Meridian Bank's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat Northern Lights Acquisition's score of 0.00 indicating that Meridian Bank is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Meridian Bank	Positive
Northern Lights Acquisition	Neutral

Do analysts prefer MRBK or NLIT?

Meridian Bank presently has a consensus target price of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.64%. Given Meridian Bank's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Meridian Bank is more favorable than Northern Lights Acquisition.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Meridian Bank	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Northern Lights Acquisition	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Summary

Meridian Bank beats Northern Lights Acquisition on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.