First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives $42.20 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.20.

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

First Merchants Stock Down 2.1 %

FRME opened at $38.83 on Friday. First Merchants has a 1-year low of $25.70 and a 1-year high of $42.44. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.27 billion, a PE ratio of 11.19 and a beta of 1.02.

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

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.35%.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FRME. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 853,075 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,632,000 after purchasing an additional 11,842 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in First Merchants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $243,673,000 after buying an additional 32,126 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the first quarter valued at about $229,000. Finally, Denali Advisors LLC boosted its stake in First Merchants by 37.1% in the first quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 146,377 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,109,000 after buying an additional 39,577 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.