Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Acquires 53,333 Shares of Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) by 94.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 109,732 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,333 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merchants Bancorp were worth $4,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its position in Merchants Bancorp by 43.4% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 1,150.8% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,000 after acquiring an additional 3,809 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its position in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 9.6% during the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 4,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,000 after purchasing an additional 425 shares in the last quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp during the second quarter valued at approximately $136,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Merchants Bancorp by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. 24.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Raymond James increased their price objective on Merchants Bancorp from $44.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th.

Merchants Bancorp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ MBIN opened at $39.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Merchants Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $21.50 and a fifty-two week high of $48.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.94 and a beta of 1.18.

Merchants Bancorp (NASDAQ:MBIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.44 by $0.14. Merchants Bancorp had a net margin of 23.42% and a return on equity of 25.38%. The business had revenue of $346.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.65 million. On average, analysts predict that Merchants Bancorp will post 5.65 EPS for the current year.

Merchants Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Merchants Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Merchants Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 6.38%.

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.