StockNews.com Lowers First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) to Sell

StockNews.com lowered shares of First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning.

Separately, Raymond James increased their target price on shares of First Merchants from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

First Merchants Price Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $34.72 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.28 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $33.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.01. First Merchants has a 12 month low of $24.52 and a 12 month high of $38.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.87. The firm had revenue of $156.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.50 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 10.97% and a net margin of 22.39%. On average, analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.92%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 36.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Stephan Fluhler sold 3,193 shares of First Merchants stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.17, for a total transaction of $105,911.81. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 24,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $798,401.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Merchants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Denali Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 146,377 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,109,000 after purchasing an additional 39,577 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $243,673,000 after acquiring an additional 32,126 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in First Merchants by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 853,075 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,632,000 after acquiring an additional 11,842 shares during the period. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in First Merchants during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

About First Merchants

First Merchants Corporation operates as the financial holding company for First Merchants Bank that provides community banking services. The company offers a range of financial services, including time, savings, and demand deposits; and consumer, commercial, agri-business, public finance, and real estate mortgage loans.