MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE:MLNK) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE:MLNK) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 844,200 shares, a decline of 27.8% from the October 31st total of 1,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 367,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MeridianLink news, major shareholder Thoma Bravo Ugp, Llc sold 650,000 shares of MeridianLink stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.05, for a total transaction of $13,682,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 28,932,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $609,026,767.40. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Timothy Nguyen sold 100,000 shares of MeridianLink stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.50, for a total transaction of $2,350,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,928,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,817,682. This represents a 0.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,760,776 shares of company stock valued at $142,580,564 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of MeridianLink

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLNK. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in MeridianLink during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of MeridianLink during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $231,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of MeridianLink by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 15,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 3,226 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in shares of MeridianLink during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $336,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of MeridianLink by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 16,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 1,490 shares in the last quarter. 82.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of MeridianLink from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of MeridianLink from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of MeridianLink from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of MeridianLink from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $18.00 to $22.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.90.

MeridianLink Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MLNK traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $23.35. The stock had a trading volume of 165,826 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,436. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.85 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. MeridianLink has a fifty-two week low of $16.49 and a fifty-two week high of $25.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $22.04 and a 200-day moving average of $21.66.

MeridianLink Company Profile

MeridianLink, Inc, a software and services company, provides software solutions for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, specialty lending providers, and consumer reporting agencies in the United States. The company offers MeridianLink One, a multi-product platform that can be tailored to meet the needs of customers as they digitally transform their organizations and adapt to changing business and consumer demands; MeridianLink Portal, a Point of Sale system that allows financial institutions to expand existing lending and deposit account; MeridianLink Opening, a cloud-based online account opening and deposit software solution; MeridianLink Consumer, a full loan solution suite to banks and credit unions; and MeridianLink DecisionLender, a loan origination software (LOS) for finance companies.