ELCO Management Co. LLC Boosts Stock Position in Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK)

ELCO Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) by 100.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,330 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,665 shares during the period. ELCO Management Co. LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Meridian worth $319,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRBK. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Meridian by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $679,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Meridian by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 104,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,362,000 after buying an additional 2,044 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in Meridian by 94.3% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 29,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,000 after buying an additional 14,121 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Meridian by 12.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 49,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 5,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourthstone LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meridian by 26.9% during the first quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 120,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,854,000 after purchasing an additional 25,466 shares during the last quarter. 45.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meridian Trading Up 2.4 %

Meridian stock traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $11.73. The stock had a trading volume of 6,384 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,932. Meridian Co. has a twelve month low of $7.80 and a twelve month high of $17.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $131.14 million, a PE ratio of 7.26 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.99.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.02. Meridian had a return on equity of 12.44% and a net margin of 12.72%. The firm had revenue of $26.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.26 million. Analysts expect that Meridian Co. will post 1.55 EPS for the current year.

Meridian Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 21st. Investors of record on Monday, August 14th were issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 11th. Meridian’s payout ratio is currently 30.96%.

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.