Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Has $57,000 Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 27.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,524 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $57,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 28.6% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 97,357 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,610,000 after purchasing an additional 21,632 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 18,817 shares of the bank’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 42,584 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 27.8% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,337 shares of the bank’s stock worth $569,000 after purchasing an additional 3,335 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Phocas Financial Corp. lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 266,711 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,890,000 after purchasing an additional 4,845 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com cut First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James lifted their price objective on First Merchants from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Stephan Fluhler sold 3,193 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider now owns 24,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $798,401.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $34.13 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a PE ratio of 9.84 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $33.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.08. First Merchants Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.52 and a fifty-two week high of $38.16.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.87. First Merchants had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 20.15%. The company had revenue of $156.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.50 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that First Merchants Co. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 39.19%.

First Merchants Company Profile

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.