Graham Capital Management L.P. Invests $386,000 in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 9,686 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $386,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FRME. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 139.1% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,289 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 809.9% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,838 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 1,636 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in First Merchants by 270.1% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,728 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $109,000 after acquiring an additional 1,991 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in First Merchants by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,052 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on FRME. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Hovde Group raised First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James cut their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on First Merchants from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.40.

First Merchants Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $39.18 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.55. First Merchants Co. has a 52-week low of $30.55 and a 52-week high of $46.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 11.46 and a beta of 1.02.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.03. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. The business had revenue of $160.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $171.23 million. Analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. This is a positive change from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.68%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is 39.33%.

First Merchants 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.