Jane Street Group LLC Acquires New Position in Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK)

Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meridian Co. (NASDAQ:MRBK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 23,499 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000. Jane Street Group LLC owned approximately 0.21% of Meridian as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Meridian by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 210,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,889,000 after purchasing an additional 12,984 shares during the period. Truffle Hound Capital LLC acquired a new position in Meridian in the 4th quarter valued at $2,742,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Meridian by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 78,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,082,000 after acquiring an additional 9,700 shares during the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Meridian by 161.4% in the 4th quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 48,587 shares of the company’s stock valued at $666,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Meridian by 122.9% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 44,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 24,648 shares in the last quarter. 58.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MRBK. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on 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 dropped their price target on shares of Meridian from $19.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Robert M. Casciato bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.79 per share, with a total value of $27,580.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 215,396 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders purchased 3,208 shares of company stock worth $44,416 over the last three months. 14.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meridian Stock Performance

Shares of Meridian stock opened at $13.19 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $148.85 million, a PE ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.69. Meridian Co. has a 12 month low of $10.04 and a 12 month high of $17.33.

Meridian (NASDAQ:MRBK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.93 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meridian Co. will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meridian Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Meridian’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.