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MBINL, Merchants Bancorp
We have several lines of business and provide various banking and financial services through our subsidiaries.
The gain on sale of loans and servicing fees generated from the multi-family rental real estate, residential, and SBA loans, as well as fees and fair market value adjustments to servicing related assets, contribute to noninterest income.
Our origination platform and servicing portfolio are 6 significant sources of our noninterest income and deposits.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~39 days after · the wire records it on arrival
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Net interest margin, loan losses, and book value. A lender is read on the quality of its balance sheet, not an earnings multiple, and the worst year of credit losses matters more than the best. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on equity has hovered around the cost of equity (median 15%, above 12% in 8 of 10 years). It runs at a 44% efficiency ratio, lean. A bank that earns above its cost of equity through the cycle compounds book value; whether this one did it by underwriting discipline or by reaching for risk is what the 10-K, and the worst years in the record, will tell you.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||||||
| $82M | $114M | $140M | $169M | $352M | $435M | $444M | $563M | $671M | $681M | RevenueRevenue |
| $73M | $94M | $141M | $212M | $283M | $312M | $481M | $1.1B | $1.3B | $1.2B | Interest incomeInt. inc. |
| $19M | $28M | $51M | $90M | $59M | $34M | $162M | $630M | $780M | $684M | Interest expenseInt. exp. |
| $54M | $67M | $90M | $122M | $224M | $278M | $319M | $448M | $523M | $517M | Net interest incomeNet int. |
| $29M | $48M | $50M | $47M | $127M | $157M | $126M | $115M | $148M | $164M | Noninterest incomeFee inc. |
| ($960K) | ($2M) | ($5M) | ($4M) | $12M | $5M | $17M | $40M | $24M | $118M | Credit-loss provisionProvision |
| $55M | $77M | $84M | $102M | $243M | $305M | $291M | $348M | $423M | $264M | Pretax incomePretax |
| $33M | $55M | $63M | $77M | $181M | $227M | $220M | $279M | $320M | $219M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 40% | 29% | 25% | 24% | 26% | 26% | 25% | 20% | 24% | 17% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||||||||
| 1.2% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1.2% | 1.9% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 1.6% | 1.7% | 1.1% | Return on assetsROA |
| 16% | 15% | 15% | 12% | 22% | 20% | 15% | 16% | 14% | 10% | Return on equityROE |
| 13% | 13% | 13% | 9% | 19% | 17% | 12% | 14% | 12% | 7% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| 16% | 15% | 16% | 12% | 23% | 20% | 15% | 17% | 14% | 10% | Return on tangible equityROTCE |
| 32% | 30% | 36% | 37% | 27% | 29% | 31% | 31% | 33% | 44% | Efficiency ratioEffic. |
| $6M | $8M | $10M | $17M | $24M | $31M | $38M | $49M | $51M | $59M | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| ($265M) | ($523M) | ($509M) | ($958M) | ($2.5B) | ($474M) | ($2.9B) | ($3.3B) | ($874M) | ($196M) | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| $414M | $613M | $282M | $2.4B | $3.1B | $1.4B | $1.1B | $4.0B | $1.6B | $273M | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($1M) | ($86M) | ($23M) | $170M | ($327M) | $853M | ($806M) | $358M | ($108M) | ($264M) | Change in cashΔ cash |
| Balance sheet | ||||||||||
| $942M | $1.4B | $2.1B | $3.0B | $5.5B | $5.8B | $7.5B | $10.2B | $10.4B | $11.0B | Loans held for investmentLoans |
| $6M | $8M | $13M | $16M | $28M | $31M | $44M | $72M | $84M | $83M | Credit-loss allowanceAllowance |
| $2.7B | $3.4B | $3.9B | $6.4B | $9.6B | $11.3B | $12.6B | $17.0B | $18.8B | $19.4B | Total assetsAssets |
| $2.4B | $2.9B | $3.2B | $5.5B | $7.4B | $9.0B | $10.1B | $14.1B | $11.9B | $13.0B | DepositsDeposits |
| $523K | $4M | $17M | $16M | $16M | $16M | $16M | $16M | $8M | $8M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| $2.5B | $3.0B | $3.5B | $5.7B | $8.8B | $10.1B | $11.2B | $15.3B | $16.6B | $17.2B | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $206M | $367M | $421M | $654M | $811M | $1.2B | $1.5B | $1.7B | $2.2B | $2.3B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | ||||||||||
| 21.1M | 22.6M | 28.7M | 43.1M | 43.2M | 43.3M | 43.3M | 43.3M | 45.0M | 45.9M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $1.57 | $2.42 | $2.19 | $1.79 | $4.18 | $5.24 | $5.07 | $6.44 | $7.12 | $4.76 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $0.29 | $0.35 | $0.36 | $0.40 | $0.55 | $0.72 | $0.88 | $1.12 | $1.14 | $1.29 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $9.77 | $16.28 | $14.66 | $15.16 | $18.78 | $26.67 | $33.70 | $39.24 | $49.85 | $49.64 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| $9.75 | $16.04 | $13.93 | $14.71 | $18.36 | $26.26 | $33.31 | $38.86 | $49.67 | $49.47 | Tangible book / shareTBVPS |
The diluted share count moved ×1.5 into 2019 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +16.0%/yr | +12.7%/yr |
| EPS | +13.1%/yr | +2.6%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +17.9%/yr | +18.7%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +26.0%/yr | +40.3%/yr |
| Book value / share | +19.8%/yr | +21.5%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Net income-31.7%
“Net income of $218.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 decreased by $101.6 million, or 32%, compared to net income of $320.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by a $93.5 million, or 385%, increase in provision for credit losses, a $76.1 million, or 34%, increase in noninterest expense, and a $5.6 million, or 1%, decrease in net interest income, partially offset by a $57.2 million decrease in provision for income taxes and a $16.3 million, or 11%, increase in noninterest income.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Return on equity 10%Below the cost of equityNet income $219M ÷ equity $2.3BIndustry peers: median 10%
What this means
The bank's north star, what it earns on shareholders' capital. Cost of equity is roughly 10%, so a return durably above that builds value and below it destroys it. One year is noisy; the durability across a full credit cycle is what counts.
- ModestNet income ÷ (equity − goodwill $8M − intangibles $36K)Industry peers: median 12%
What this means
The cleaner return, stripping out the goodwill paid for past acquisitions. This is the number a buyer of the whole bank actually earns on the hard capital.
- Efficiency ratio 44%Low cost ratio (<58%)Noninterest expense $300M ÷ (net interest income + fees)Industry peers: median 56%
What this means
The share of revenue eaten by running costs; lower is better, and below about 60% marks a genuinely efficient operation. A low ratio held for years is the operational side of a moat.
Is it sound?
- Capital (equity / assets) 11.7%Well capitalizedEquity $2.3B ÷ assets $19.4B
What this means
A plain-English leverage read: how much of the balance sheet is the owners' own money. This is a rough proxy; the regulatory figure is the CET1 ratio, which is risk-weighted and reported in the filing. The point is the same, how much loss the bank can absorb before depositors are at risk.
- Deposit funding 67%Deposit-fundedDeposits $13.0B ÷ assets $19.4B
What this means
Low-cost, sticky deposits are a bank's real moat, the cheap raw material it lends out at a spread. A bank funded mostly by deposits earns more durably than one that rents its money in the wholesale market.
- Credit cost (provision / NII) 23%ElevatedProvision for credit losses $118M ÷ net interest income $517M
What this means
What the bank set aside this year against loans going bad, as a share of its lending income. This swings hard with the cycle, low in good years and spiking in recessions, so read it across the record, not in one year. Disciplined underwriting shows up as low, stable provisions through a downturn.
The franchise and the credit cycle
- Rate-sensitive fundingNoninterest-bearing deposits $604M ÷ deposits $13.0B · pays 4.32% on the interest-bearing rest (avg of year-ends)
What this means
The share of deposits the bank pays nothing for — checking accounts that stay through rate cycles. This is the deposit moat in one number: a high share means cheap, sticky raw material for lending; a low share means the funding reprices with every rate move. Buffett's Wells letter is built on exactly this economics.
- Net charge-offs 1.15%Elevated lossesCharge-offs net of recoveries $124M ÷ loans $10.7B (avg of year-ends) · worst year on record 1.12% · allowance held at 0.75% of loans
What this means
Loans actually written off, net of what was later recovered — the realized truth the provisions were guessing at. Graham's rule applies doubly here: the worst year in the record, not the average, is the read, because a loan book's sins are committed in the good years and confessed in the bad ones.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mr. Petrie. | $1.5M | $2.2M | ($51M) |
| 2022 | Mr. Petrie. | $1.9M | $2.3M | $973M |
| 2023 | Mr. Petrie. | $2.8M | $5.0M | ($359M) |
| 2024 | Mr. Petrie. | $2.9M | $3.6M | ($838M) |
| 2025 | Mr. Petrie. | $2.5M | $2.6M | ($345M) |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- How much of the deposit base could leave overnight?≈23.77% — the sentence's $3.1 billion over the $13.0B Deposits line (XBRL, FY2025)
“Uninsured deposits totaled approximately $3.1 billion as of December 31, 2025, representing 23.3% of total deposits.”verify →
- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Credit & receivables as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers
Merchants Bancorp is listed here as a claim on a business rather than as the business itself — a preferred series, a bond or a warrant, filed under the same registrant as the common stock. A comparative table lines businesses up against one another, so there is none here. The business behind it is Merchants Bancorp (MBIN), where the record, the scorecard and the peer bench are.
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
price / tangible bookA bank is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what Merchants Bancorp’s record justifies.
Tangible book / share, delivered22%/yr’20→’25
The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). A bank earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; the premium above that prices each point of durable excess return. A higher cost of equity lowers the justified multiple for a bank.
Enter a price above to run it.
Graham applied the same standards to financial enterprises (Intelligent Investor ch.14): the 15× multiple cap on averaged earnings, and P/E times price-to-book at most 22.5. The gate marks the bargain-hunter’s floor, not a verdict.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Tangible book $2.3B on 46M shares, a 15% normalized return on it. The dials set the multiple such a return would justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. It assumes the bank keeps earning that return; a credit cycle, a rate shock or a bad acquisition changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.
Manual order: ← MBIN its page in the Manual MBINM →
Industry order: ← MBIN the Banks chapter MBINM →