Eagle Asset Management Inc. Grows Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 93.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 424,130 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 204,736 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $15,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of FRME. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of First Merchants by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,475,053 shares of the bank’s stock worth $115,682,000 after purchasing an additional 180,323 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,694,006 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $89,683,000 after buying an additional 75,677 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in First Merchants by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,962,000 after buying an additional 11,521 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in First Merchants by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 722,148 shares of the bank’s stock worth $26,864,000 after acquiring an additional 5,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp raised its stake in shares of First Merchants by 457.3% during the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 581,863 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,370,000 after acquiring an additional 477,462 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FRME has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target 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 began coverage on shares of First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.60.

First Merchants Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ FRME opened at $44.05 on Friday. First Merchants Co. has a 52 week low of $30.20 and a 52 week high of $45.08. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a PE ratio of 14.54 and a beta of 1.01.

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

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 46.20%.

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.