Stock Repurchase Program Approved by Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) Board of Directors

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 21st, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $30.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the bank to purchase up to 4.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Shore Bancshares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Shore Bancshares from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Shore Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Hovde Group upped their price target on shares of Shore Bancshares from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of Shore Bancshares in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $21.33.

Shore Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ SHBI traded up $0.25 on Thursday, hitting $19.95. The stock had a trading volume of 227,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 191,455. Shore Bancshares has a 52-week low of $14.03 and a 52-week high of $20.68. 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 company has a market capitalization of $667.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.61 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $18.96 and a 200-day moving average of $18.40.

Shore Bancshares (NASDAQ:SHBI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.10. Shore Bancshares had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 11.84%. The firm had revenue of $59.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.35 million. Equities analysts expect that Shore Bancshares will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

About Shore Bancshares

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.