AJOVista LLC Acquires Shares of 2,027 Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN)

AJOVista LLC acquired a new stake in Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 2,027 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MBIN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 944,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,173,000 after acquiring an additional 12,628 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Merchants Bancorp by 42,253.6% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 217,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,252,000 after buying an additional 216,761 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Merchants Bancorp by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 188,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,228,000 after buying an additional 18,693 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Merchants Bancorp by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 185,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,137,000 after acquiring an additional 10,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 143,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,981,000 after acquiring an additional 4,261 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 24.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Merchants Bancorp from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $58.50 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Merchants Bancorp in a report on Friday.

Merchants Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ MBIN traded up $2.85 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $45.87. 210,733 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 142,457. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Merchants Bancorp has a 1 year low of $21.50 and a 1 year high of $48.68. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.79.

Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.43. Merchants Bancorp had a net margin of 23.55% and a return on equity of 27.51%. The company had revenue of $355.05 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.15 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Merchants Bancorp will post 6.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Merchants Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. This is a positive change from Merchants Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Merchants Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.65%.

Merchants Bancorp Company Profile

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.