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

Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.60.

FRME has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Hovde Group started coverage on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Waterfront Wealth Inc. raised its stake in shares of First Merchants by 1.1% during the second quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 26,433 shares of the bank’s stock worth $880,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in First Merchants by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 10,614 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 328 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in First Merchants by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,616 shares of the bank’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 108.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 750 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 7.9% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 7,074 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $233,000 after acquiring an additional 519 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.5 %

FRME opened at $43.75 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. First Merchants has a 12 month low of $30.55 and a 12 month high of $46.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.44 and a beta of 1.01.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.06). First Merchants had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $265.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.55 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.20%.

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.