Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $20.1667.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on SHBI shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of Shore Bancshares in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Hovde Group raised their price objective on Shore Bancshares from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Shore Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th.

Shore Bancshares Stock Up 3.1%

Shares of SHBI stock opened at $19.98 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $18.86 and a 200 day moving average of $17.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market cap of $668.33 million, a P/E ratio of 11.22 and a beta of 0.85. Shore Bancshares has a twelve month low of $12.20 and a twelve month high of $20.68.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $59.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.55 million. Shore Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.50% and a net margin of 17.36%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Shore Bancshares will post 1.59 EPS for the current year.

Shore Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 4th. Shore Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.97%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Shore Bancshares news, Director William E. Esham III acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $19.99 per share, with a total value of $99,950.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 5,510 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,144.90. This trade represents a 980.39% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 8.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Shore Bancshares

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,781,501 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,234,000 after purchasing an additional 48,390 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,630,022 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,819,000 after purchasing an additional 20,406 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,150,208 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $20,336,000 after purchasing an additional 84,298 shares during the period. Fourthstone LLC grew its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 61.6% in the fourth quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 918,202 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,234,000 after purchasing an additional 350,012 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 168.5% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 495,965 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,769,000 after purchasing an additional 311,266 shares during the period. 59.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shore Bancshares Company Profile

Shore Bancshares, Inc (NASDAQ: SHBI) is the bank holding company for Shore Community Bank, a commercial bank headquartered in Mount Holly, New Jersey. The company provides a full suite of banking and financial services to individuals and businesses, including deposit accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage financing, and cash management solutions. Through its branch network, Shore Bancshares focuses on delivering community-oriented banking services with an emphasis on personalized customer relationships.

Shore Community Bank’s lending portfolio includes commercial real estate, construction loans, agricultural loans, small business loans under government-sponsored programs, and conventional residential mortgages.