First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $48.20.

Several research firms recently issued reports on FRME. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James cut their target price on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hovde Group raised First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its position in First Merchants by 2,420.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 78,194 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,909,000 after buying an additional 75,092 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of First Merchants by 41.1% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 16,772 shares of the bank’s stock worth $624,000 after purchasing an additional 4,888 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 1.1% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 82,318 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,062,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the third quarter valued at approximately $153,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in First Merchants by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 43,275 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,610,000 after purchasing an additional 5,016 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of FRME stock opened at $35.65 on Friday. First Merchants has a 12 month low of $30.55 and a 12 month high of $46.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.93%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.94%.

First Merchants Company 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.