Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $20.69 and last traded at $20.40, with a volume of 126577 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $20.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on SHBI. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Shore Bancshares in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Hovde Group boosted their target price on Shore Bancshares from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Shore Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Shore Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Shore Bancshares from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $21.33.

Shore Bancshares Price Performance

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 $691.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.99 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.57.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $59.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.35 million. Shore Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.84% and a net margin of 18.20%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Shore Bancshares Inc will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

Shore Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.14 dividend. This is a positive change from Shore Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Shore Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.53%.

Shore Bancshares declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that permits the company to repurchase $30.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to reacquire up to 4.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shore Bancshares

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SHBI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 2.8% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,683,403 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,445,000 after purchasing an additional 53,381 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 7.9% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Fourthstone LLC increased its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 61.6% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 168.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.76% of the company’s stock.

About Shore Bancshares

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.