Great Lakes Advisors LLC Sells 13,402 Shares of First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Great Lakes Advisors LLC cut its holdings in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 95,122 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 13,402 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $3,586,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 169.3% in the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 261,904 shares of the bank’s stock worth $10,031,000 after purchasing an additional 164,664 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $6,109,000. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in shares of First Merchants by 941.6% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 107,859 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,362,000 after buying an additional 97,504 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $2,749,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of First Merchants during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,222,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FRME shares. Zacks Research cut shares of First Merchants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $39.76 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 0.93. First Merchants Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.13 and a 52-week high of $45.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.29.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. First Merchants had a net margin of 21.49% and a return on equity of 9.68%. The business had revenue of $178.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.89 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is presently 37.02%.

About First Merchants

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.