Brokerages Set Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) Target Price at $22.00

Shore Bancshares Inc (NASDAQ:SHBI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.00.

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Hovde Group increased their price objective on shares of Shore Bancshares from $23.50 to $26.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Shore Bancshares in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Shore Bancshares from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Zacks Research downgraded Shore Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Shore Bancshares from $24.00 to $26.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Shore Bancshares

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Shore Bancshares by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,781,501 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,234,000 after acquiring an additional 48,390 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,683,403 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,445,000 after purchasing an additional 53,381 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Shore Bancshares by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,150,208 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,336,000 after purchasing an additional 84,298 shares during the period. Fourthstone LLC raised its position in Shore Bancshares by 61.6% in the 4th quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 918,202 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,234,000 after purchasing an additional 350,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.76% of the company’s stock.

Shore Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of SHBI opened at $24.50 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $22.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.19. Shore Bancshares has a one year low of $14.93 and a one year high of $24.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $819.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37 and a beta of 0.81.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $61.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.42 million. Shore Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.24% and a net margin of 19.15%. Equities research analysts forecast that Shore Bancshares will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shore Bancshares announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that allows the company to buyback $30.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the bank to purchase up to 4.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Shore Bancshares Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is a boost from Shore Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Shore Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.28%.

Shore Bancshares Company Profile

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.