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

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the five research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.20.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stephens lowered First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Hovde Group began coverage on shares of First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock.

First Merchants Trading Down 3.7 %

NASDAQ FRME opened at $37.30 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.02. First Merchants has a 12 month low of $25.70 and a 12 month high of $42.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The company has a 50-day moving average of $37.71 and a 200-day moving average of $34.96.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $267.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.35 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.17% and a net margin of 17.77%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that First Merchants will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.35%.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FRME. rhino investment partners Inc purchased a new position in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at about $8,572,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 84.1% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 31,082 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,024,000 after buying an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 21.0% during the first quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 154,379 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,388,000 after buying an additional 26,772 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 40.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 184,862 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,452,000 after buying an additional 53,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at $877,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

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.