Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) Receives $22.00 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $22.00.

SHBI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Shore Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings raised Shore Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Shore Bancshares in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Shore Bancshares from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th.

Shore Bancshares Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of SHBI stock opened at $22.22 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $21.08 and a 200-day moving average of $19.53. The stock has a market cap of $743.48 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 0.82. Shore Bancshares has a 52-week low of $14.93 and a 52-week high of $23.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $59.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.35 million. Shore Bancshares had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 11.84%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Shore Bancshares will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shore Bancshares announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 21st that permits the company to repurchase $30.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to buy up to 4.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Shore Bancshares Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Shore Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Shore Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Shore Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fourthstone LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 350,012 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 578.2% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 380,283 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,104,000 after buying an additional 324,208 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 168.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 495,965 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,769,000 after buying an additional 311,266 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 19.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,065,910 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $17,492,000 after acquiring an additional 175,282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 143.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,109 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,293,000 after acquiring an additional 160,850 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.