57,433 Shares in Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) Bought by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 57,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,095,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Denali Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 182,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,660,000 after purchasing an additional 27,817 shares in the last quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Merchants Bancorp by 3,547.0% in the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,867,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,442,000 after acquiring an additional 6,678,788 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Merchants Bancorp by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 143,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,244,000 after buying an additional 13,078 shares during the period. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust purchased a new stake in Merchants Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $82,000. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Merchants Bancorp by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 60,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,208,000 after acquiring an additional 11,000 shares during the period. 24.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Merchants Bancorp from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Merchants Bancorp from $52.50 to $56.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $53.00 target price (up from $50.00) on shares of Merchants Bancorp in a report on Thursday, January 30th.

Insider Transactions at Merchants Bancorp

In other news, insider Scott A. Evans sold 25,000 shares of Merchants Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.10, for a total transaction of $1,077,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,606 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,189,818.60. The trade was a 47.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 39.70% of the company’s stock.

Merchants Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MBIN opened at $37.04 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $40.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.37. Merchants Bancorp has a 52-week low of $34.16 and a 52-week high of $53.27. The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.58. Merchants Bancorp had a net margin of 22.08% and a return on equity of 22.86%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Merchants Bancorp will post 5.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merchants Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This is a positive change from Merchants Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Merchants Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.34%.

About Merchants Bancorp

Merchants Bancorp operates as the diversified bank holding company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Multi-family Mortgage Banking, Mortgage Warehousing, and Banking. The Multi-family Mortgage Banking segment engages in the mortgage banking, which originates and services government sponsored mortgages, including bridge financing products to refinance, acquire, or reposition multi-family housing projects, and construction lending for multi-family and healthcare facilities.