EMC Capital Management Has $84,000 Stake in Mercantile Bank Co. (NASDAQ:MBWM)

EMC Capital Management lowered its position in shares of Mercantile Bank Co. (NASDAQ:MBWM) by 80.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,723 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management’s holdings in Mercantile Bank were worth $84,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tributary Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mercantile Bank by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 287,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,790,000 after acquiring an additional 40,055 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Mercantile Bank by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 11,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Mercantile Bank in the 4th quarter valued at $3,646,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Mercantile Bank by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 82,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,601,000 after buying an additional 21,411 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Mercantile Bank by 3.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,611 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. 58.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert B. Kaminski sold 5,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.75, for a total transaction of $300,150.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,810 shares in the company, valued at $1,025,167.50. The trade was a 22.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 16,300 shares of company stock worth $819,118 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MBWM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Hovde Group upgraded Mercantile Bank from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Mercantile Bank from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Mercantile Bank Price Performance

MBWM opened at $48.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $788.28 million, a P/E ratio of 9.86 and a beta of 1.01. Mercantile Bank Co. has a 12 month low of $33.46 and a 12 month high of $52.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.73.

Mercantile Bank (NASDAQ:MBWM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.07. Mercantile Bank had a return on equity of 14.29% and a net margin of 21.99%. On average, research analysts expect that Mercantile Bank Co. will post 4.83 EPS for the current year.

Mercantile Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Mercantile Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. Mercantile Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.09%.

Mercantile Bank Company Profile

Mercantile Bank Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Mercantile Bank of Michigan that provides commercial and retail banking services to small- to medium-sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, including checking, savings, and term certificate accounts; time deposits; and certificates of deposit.