First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Friday.

Separately, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of First Merchants from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.4 %

First Merchants stock opened at $33.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. First Merchants has a 1 year low of $24.52 and a 1 year high of $38.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $33.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.69.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.87. First Merchants had a net margin of 22.39% and a return on equity of 10.97%. The firm had revenue of $156.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.50 million. On average, equities analysts predict that First Merchants will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Merchants news, insider Stephan Fluhler sold 3,193 shares of First Merchants stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.17, for a total transaction of $105,911.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $798,401.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.32% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FRME. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 32,126 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 16.3% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,893,975 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $138,157,000 after acquiring an additional 686,348 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,074,407 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,001,000 after acquiring an additional 211,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 7.9% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,882,370 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $78,307,000 after acquiring an additional 137,877 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.