Equitable Holdings Inc. Takes $1.17 Million Position in Shore Bancshares Inc $SHBI

Equitable Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 50,854 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Shore Bancshares in the second quarter valued at $73,784,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 2.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,781,501 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,234,000 after buying an additional 48,390 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 3.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,683,403 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,445,000 after buying an additional 53,381 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,150,208 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,336,000 after buying an additional 84,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourthstone LLC grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 61.6% during the fourth quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 918,202 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,234,000 after buying an additional 350,012 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research downgraded Shore Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Hovde Group lifted their target price on Shore Bancshares from $23.50 to $26.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Shore Bancshares in a report on Friday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Shore Bancshares from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Shore Bancshares from $24.00 to $26.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.00.

Shore Bancshares Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ SHBI opened at $23.14 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $772.23 million, a P/E ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 0.81. Shore Bancshares Inc has a 52-week low of $14.93 and a 52-week high of $24.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $23.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.10. Shore Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.11% and a net margin of 19.15%.The company had revenue of $61.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.42 million. Equities research analysts expect that Shore Bancshares Inc will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Shore Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 2nd. Shore Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.28%.

Shore Bancshares declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that allows the company to repurchase $30.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to buy up to 4.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.