Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) Shares Gap Up Following Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Shore Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHBI) gapped up before the market opened on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $15.79, but opened at $17.24. Shore Bancshares shares last traded at $16.13, with a volume of 12,452 shares traded.

The bank reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.09. Shore Bancshares had a net margin of 12.85% and a return on equity of 10.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Shore Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Konrad Wayson purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $16.94 per share, with a total value of $50,820.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 53,266 shares in the company, valued at $902,326.04. The trade was a 5.97 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 8.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SHBI. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 6.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,208,740 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,839,000 after acquiring an additional 77,961 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new position in Shore Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $899,000. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Shore Bancshares during the 2nd quarter worth $147,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Shore Bancshares during the third quarter worth $156,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Shore Bancshares by 30.6% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 37,674 shares of the bank’s stock worth $527,000 after buying an additional 8,831 shares in the last quarter. 59.76% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shore Bancshares Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $538.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.91 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

About Shore Bancshares

Shore Bancshares, Inc operates as a bank holding company for the Shore United Bank, N.A. that provides various commercial and consumer banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It offers checking, savings, overnight investment sweep, and money market accounts; and regular and IRA certificates of deposit, as well as CDARS programs and cash management services.