First Merchants Corporation $FRME Stock Position Trimmed by First Merchants Corp

First Merchants Corp cut its position in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 539,726 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,884 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $20,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FRME. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $24,523,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in First Merchants by 842.5% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 334,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,531,000 after purchasing an additional 299,092 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its position in First Merchants by 1,034.4% in the 1st quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 202,055 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,171,000 after purchasing an additional 184,243 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $7,342,000. Finally, Mendon Capital Advisors Corp bought a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $5,303,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on FRME shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of First Merchants from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Zacks Research raised shares of First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 4th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, First Merchants presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

First Merchants Stock Down 0.7%

NASDAQ FRME opened at $37.78 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.51. First Merchants Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.13 and a 12 month high of $46.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.79 and a beta of 1.05.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.04. First Merchants had a net margin of 21.35% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The business had revenue of $170.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.31%.

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.