First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.00.

FRME has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Hovde Group upgraded First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target (up previously from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Activity at First Merchants

In other news, President Michael J. Stewart sold 7,248 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.73, for a total value of $316,955.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 92,664 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,052,196.72. This represents a 7.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Merchants

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Merchants in the third quarter valued at approximately $391,000. CWM LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 65.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,174 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,254 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 11,077 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 25.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,897 shares of the bank’s stock worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 3,262 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 78.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,893 shares of the bank’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Stock Performance

FRME opened at $44.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.84. First Merchants has a 1 year low of $30.55 and a 1 year high of $46.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89 and a beta of 1.07.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.23%. Research analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is 40.94%.

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.