Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) Sees Strong Trading Volume Following Strong Earnings

Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) saw unusually-high trading volume on Tuesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. Approximately 150,810 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 25% from the previous session’s volume of 120,192 shares.The stock last traded at $40.36 and had previously closed at $39.27.

The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.43. Merchants Bancorp had a return on equity of 25.38% and a net margin of 23.42%. The firm had revenue of $355.05 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.15 million.

Merchants Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. This is a positive change from Merchants Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Merchants Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 6.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Raymond James upped their price objective on Merchants Bancorp from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 15,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 34,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $956,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the period. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merchants Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Denali Advisors LLC raised its stake in Merchants Bancorp by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 81,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,511,000 after buying an additional 680 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in Merchants Bancorp by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 38,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,053,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.57% of the company’s stock.

Merchants Bancorp Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $41.17 and a 200 day moving average of $38.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.15 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

About Merchants Bancorp

Merchants Bancorp operates as the diversified bank holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Multi-family Mortgage Banking, Mortgage Warehousing, and Banking. The Multi-family Mortgage Banking segment engages in the mortgage banking, which originates and services government sponsored mortgages, including bridge financing products to refinance, acquire, or reposition multi-family housing projects, and construction lending for multi-family and healthcare facilities.