Short Interest in Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) Grows By 9.5%

Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 626,700 shares, a growth of 9.5% from the November 30th total of 572,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 65,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.6 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of Marin Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of Bank of Marin Bancorp by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 25,011 shares of the bank’s stock worth $405,000 after buying an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of Marin Bancorp by 5.0% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 22,644 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $455,000 after buying an additional 1,072 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Bank of Marin Bancorp by 21.1% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 12,254 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $199,000 after buying an additional 2,131 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of Marin Bancorp by 18.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,662 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $315,000 after buying an additional 2,469 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Bank of Marin Bancorp by 23.3% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 14,275 shares of the bank’s stock worth $231,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. 52.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of Marin Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BMRC opened at $23.77 on Thursday. Bank of Marin Bancorp has a one year low of $14.11 and a one year high of $27.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $382.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.64 and a beta of 0.93.

Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ:BMRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The bank reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $39.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.30 million. Bank of Marin Bancorp had a positive return on equity of 3.05% and a negative net margin of 9.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Bank of Marin Bancorp will post 0.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Marin Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Bank of Marin Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -116.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BMRC shares. Stephens raised shares of Bank of Marin Bancorp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised Bank of Marin Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. DA Davidson upgraded Bank of Marin Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Bank of Marin Bancorp from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

About Bank of Marin Bancorp

Bank of Marin Bancorp operates as the holding company for Bank of Marin that provides a range of financial services primarily to small to medium-sized businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and commercial real estate investors in the United States. The company offers personal and business checking and savings accounts; and individual retirement, health savings, and demand deposit marketplace accounts, as well as time certificates of deposit, certificate of deposit account registry, and insured cash sweep services.