MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE:MLNK) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $20.83, but opened at $19.73. MeridianLink shares last traded at $19.55, with a volume of 56,760 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on MLNK. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of MeridianLink from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Bank of America lowered MeridianLink from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $28.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded MeridianLink from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $22.50 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.08.

MeridianLink Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a current ratio of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $21.15 and its 200-day moving average is $21.96.

MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.08) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.17). MeridianLink had a negative net margin of 16.57% and a negative return on equity of 9.57%. The firm had revenue of $80.37 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.54 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that MeridianLink, Inc. will post -0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Nicolaas Vlok sold 71,598 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.17, for a total transaction of $1,515,729.66. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,043,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,088,396.94. This trade represents a 6.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Timothy Nguyen sold 10,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.02, for a total transaction of $248,063.52. Following the sale, the insider now owns 10,751,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $247,509,543.70. This trade represents a 0.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 286,488 shares of company stock worth $6,525,738. Insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MLNK. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in MeridianLink by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,159,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,340,000 after buying an additional 12,002 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of MeridianLink by 23.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 797,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,026,000 after purchasing an additional 150,712 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in MeridianLink by 20.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 667,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,724,000 after purchasing an additional 114,578 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in MeridianLink by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 603,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,415,000 after buying an additional 65,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MeridianLink during the third quarter valued at about $8,598,000. 82.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MeridianLink Company Profile

MeridianLink, Inc, a software and services company, provides software solutions for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, specialty lending providers, and consumer reporting agencies in the United States. The company offers MeridianLink One, a multi-product platform that can be tailored to meet the needs of customers as they digitally transform their organizations and adapt to changing business and consumer demands; MeridianLink Portal, a Point of Sale system that allows financial institutions to expand existing lending and deposit account; MeridianLink Opening, a cloud-based online account opening and deposit software solution; MeridianLink Consumer, a full loan solution suite to banks and credit unions; and MeridianLink DecisionLender, a loan origination software (LOS) for finance companies.