Mercantile Bank Co. (NASDAQ:MBWM) Shares Acquired by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Mercantile Bank Co. (NASDAQ:MBWM) by 3.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,611 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Mercantile Bank were worth $376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Mercantile Bank by 49.7% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 19,485 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $750,000 after acquiring an additional 6,467 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Mercantile Bank by 2.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 805,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,997,000 after acquiring an additional 21,616 shares during the period. Comerica Bank boosted its stake in Mercantile Bank by 215.2% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 6,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $242,000 after acquiring an additional 4,297 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in Mercantile Bank in the first quarter valued at approximately $72,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its stake in Mercantile Bank by 242.6% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,799 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 1,982 shares during the period. 58.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert B. Kaminski sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total transaction of $198,040.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 25,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,267,951.10. The trade was a 13.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 4,500 shares of company stock valued at $219,110 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.08% of the company’s stock.

Mercantile Bank Stock Performance

Shares of MBWM stock opened at $50.39 on Monday. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $45.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.86. Mercantile Bank Co. has a 52 week low of $33.46 and a 52 week high of $51.31. The company has a market cap of $813.29 million, a P/E ratio of 10.12 and a beta of 0.95.

Mercantile Bank (NASDAQ:MBWM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $93.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $56.83 million. Mercantile Bank had a return on equity of 14.59% and a net margin of 22.77%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Mercantile Bank Co. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Mercantile Bank Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Mercantile Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.92%.

About Mercantile Bank

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.