William Blair Investment Management LLC Grows Holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 820,649 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,932 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 1.40% of First Merchants worth $32,736,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 3,889.0% in the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,092,101,000 after acquiring an additional 26,691,490 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,400,821 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,120,000 after acquiring an additional 11,430 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $37,133,000 after acquiring an additional 332,168 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,962,000 after acquiring an additional 11,521 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 731,413 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,176,000 after acquiring an additional 9,265 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on FRME. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hovde Group upgraded First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

First Merchants Price Performance

FRME opened at $40.61 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $41.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.48. First Merchants Co. has a 1 year low of $30.55 and a 1 year high of $46.13. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a PE ratio of 11.87 and a beta of 1.05.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. Research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.45%. First Merchants’s 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.