Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Has $24.32 Million Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lessened its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 696,924 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,787 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $24,323,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at $14,400,000. rhino investment partners Inc acquired a new position in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,572,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in First Merchants by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,074,407 shares of the bank’s stock worth $114,001,000 after buying an additional 211,113 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 978,469 shares of the bank’s stock worth $36,282,000 after buying an additional 89,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,413 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $181,926,000 after acquiring an additional 84,858 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Merchants

In other news, Director Patrick J. Fehring sold 23,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.51, for a total value of $778,159.36. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 122,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,989,172.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on FRME. StockNews.com upgraded First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price (up from $43.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, First Merchants presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

First Merchants Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of FRME traded down $0.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $40.50. 112,273 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 256,698. The business has a fifty day moving average of $33.97 and a 200-day moving average of $34.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 11.74 and a beta of 1.04. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $25.70 and a 1-year high of $42.44.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). First Merchants had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The business had revenue of $267.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.35 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. Analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. This is a positive change from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. First Merchants’s payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

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.