First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.00.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on FRME shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of First Merchants from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Wall Street Zen raised First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research cut First Merchants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $39.76 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $38.04 and a 200 day moving average of $38.28. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $33.13 and a 52 week high of $45.62. The company has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a PE ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.89 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.02%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Merchants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FRME. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 361.7% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 771 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 604 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 62.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 987 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Caldwell Trust Co purchased a new position in First Merchants during the second quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, GGM Financials LLC bought a new stake in First Merchants in the third quarter worth $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Company Profile

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.