First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Reaches New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) shares reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $44.67 and last traded at $44.9470, with a volume of 30298 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $43.75.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FRME. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of First Merchants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, First Merchants presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.00.

First Merchants Trading Down 1.4%

The company has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $163.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $201.91 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.58% and a net margin of 18.87%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.00 EPS. Analysts predict that First Merchants Corporation will post 4.26 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other First Merchants news, Director Larry W. Myers sold 10,000 shares of First Merchants stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.50, for a total transaction of $415,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 99,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,139,666.50. The trade was a 9.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 27,081,812.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 15,165,871 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $568,417,000 after acquiring an additional 15,165,815 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in First Merchants by 8.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,017 shares of the bank’s stock worth $139,272,000 after acquiring an additional 277,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in First Merchants by 0.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,005,625 shares of the bank’s stock worth $76,815,000 after acquiring an additional 6,924 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC increased its stake in First Merchants by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 1,058,247 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,663,000 after acquiring an additional 104,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in First Merchants by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 956,197 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,838,000 after purchasing an additional 8,699 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Company Profile

First Merchants Corporation, through its subsidiary First Merchants Bank, offers a comprehensive suite of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses and public sector clients. The company’s core business activities include retail and commercial banking, lending, treasury and cash management, and wealth advisory services. With a focus on relationship banking, First Merchants seeks to deliver tailored solutions for deposit accounts, loan financing and other credit products.

On the consumer side, First Merchants provides checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, personal and mortgage loans, and electronic banking conveniences.