First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $49.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on FRME shares. Wall Street Zen raised First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 17th. Weiss Ratings cut First Merchants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Merchants news, Director Larry W. Myers sold 10,000 shares of First Merchants stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.50, for a total value of $415,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 99,751 shares in the company, valued at $4,139,666.50. This trade represents a 9.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Merchants

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FRME. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 361.7% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 771 shares of the bank’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 604 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 325.7% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 796 shares of the bank’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 609 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 62.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 987 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in First Merchants by 68.9% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,042 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $42.84 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $2.70 billion, a PE ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.84. First Merchants has a 1-year low of $34.66 and a 1-year high of $44.59.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $163.53 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $201.91 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 9.58%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that First Merchants will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. This is an increase from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 43.53%.

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.