Merchants Bancshares Inc

I sold some shares recently to reduce my exposure to Merchants Bancshares Inc. It has been a large percentage of my overall portfolio and has become more fairly valued, making the margin of safety low.

I do however still maintain a large position in the company and feel it’s a good investment.

Merchant’s Bank (MBVT) has done very well over the last 3 months.  I believe it’s time to take some profits.  I sold a sizeable portion of my position in Merchant’s today, most of which I purchased back in early 2011, making a gain of about 65%, not counting dividend revenue which has been around 4% up until recently.

I sold about 1/3 of our position in Merchant’s but would be willing to buy it back at a lower price, which will most likely happen in the near term. I would look for a target price of $28 or less.

My feeling on Merchant’s are still quite positive, but I just believe the price is getting a little high and I believe that it will be lower soon.  Even though I sold half of my position, Merchant’s is still my largest position in our portfolio.

Merchant’s Bank (MBVT) has recovered from a recent sell off.

Since I bought the additional shares with the whole intention of selling once the share price recovered I sold some of those shares today for a quick 4.49% gain and will most likely buy again if the the price drops significantly again.

Again, I am still keeping the bulk of my position, which is still my largest position.

I added more to my position in Merchant’s Bank (MBVT) today at $26/share.

Took advantage of the overall market selloff in equities.

Dividend yield on Merchant’s at this price is now 4.30%.

My opinions on this company have not changed.

We added more to our position in Merchant’s Bank (MBVT) today as the price dipped below our buy price of $26.85.

Merchant’s Bank is our largest holding by far as we find the price attractive, especially at $26.85/share, which put the PE around 10 and the dividend yield at 4.17%.

As stated in the past, Merchant’s Bank is very stable, risk-adverse with a great history of dividend payments. Even during the recent economic problems, Merchant’s continued to thrive as many of their larger banking peers floundered.

This make for a very reliable income-producing investment, which makes it a great core holding.

This particular purchase will most likely be sold once the price hits $28-$29/share as we already have so much in the stock and would like to still keep diversified, but when the price dips this low it will most likely not stay there very long, which makes for a great trade.

And if the price should stay down, then the worse case scenario is you hold it and make 4.17%.