Citadel Advisors LLC Has $252,000 Position in Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK)

Citadel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) by 29.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,347 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,129 shares during the period. Citadel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meridian were worth $252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MRBK. Truffle Hound Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meridian in the 4th quarter valued at $2,742,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Meridian by 122.9% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 44,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $613,000 after acquiring an additional 24,648 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Meridian by 265.1% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 36,959 shares of the company’s stock worth $507,000 after acquiring an additional 26,835 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in Meridian during the 4th quarter worth $322,000. Finally, Mendon Capital Advisors Corp lifted its position in Meridian by 161.4% during the 4th quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 48,587 shares of the company’s stock worth $666,000 after acquiring an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Meridian from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Meridian from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insider Transactions at Meridian

In other Meridian news, Director Robert M. Casciato bought 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 9th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $13.79 per share, with a total value of $27,580.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 215,396 shares in the company, valued at $2,970,310.84. The trade was a 0.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 3,208 shares of company stock worth $44,416. 14.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meridian Stock Down 0.7%

Meridian stock opened at $13.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $147.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Meridian Co. has a fifty-two week low of $10.04 and a fifty-two week high of $17.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $13.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $14.65.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.12). Meridian had a return on equity of 10.01% and a net margin of 8.28%. The company had revenue of $27.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.93 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Meridian Co. will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Meridian Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Meridian’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

Meridian 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.