Brokerages Set First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) PT at $42.20

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $42.20.

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

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FRME. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $243,673,000 after acquiring an additional 32,126 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,475,053 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $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 purchasing an additional 75,677 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 853,075 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,632,000 after purchasing an additional 11,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 4,586.1% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 700,711 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,982,000 after purchasing an additional 685,758 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Merchants Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $37.53 on Tuesday. First Merchants has a one year low of $25.70 and a one year high of $42.44. The company has a market cap of $2.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.82 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $37.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.99.

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). 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 earned $1.02 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.73%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

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.