DA Davidson Has Negative Outlook of Meridian FY2024 Earnings

Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) – DA Davidson reduced their FY2024 EPS estimates for Meridian in a note issued to investors on Thursday, December 19th. DA Davidson analyst M. Navas now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $1.21 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $1.25. DA Davidson has a “Buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Meridian’s current full-year earnings is $1.29 per share. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Meridian’s Q4 2024 earnings at $0.31 EPS.

Separately, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Meridian from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th.

Meridian Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MRBK opened at $14.50 on Friday. Meridian has a fifty-two week low of $8.26 and a fifty-two week high of $17.33. The company has a market cap of $162.98 million, a PE ratio of 14.36 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.46.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last announced its earnings results 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. Meridian had a return on equity of 6.99% and a net margin of 6.00%. The firm had revenue of $51.15 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.57 million.

Institutional Trading of Meridian

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRBK. Banc Funds Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Meridian by 4.7% in the third quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 829,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,480,000 after purchasing an additional 37,450 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Meridian by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 171,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,801,000 after buying an additional 10,514 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Meridian in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $128,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in Meridian by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 40,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 3,675 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meridian by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 93,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,838 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.56% of the company’s stock.

Meridian Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. Meridian’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.50%.

Meridian Company Profile

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.