First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $48.3333.

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of First Merchants from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 17th.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 1st quarter worth $645,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 46.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 243,276 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,422,000 after acquiring an additional 77,155 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 1st quarter worth $865,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 31.3% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 70,839 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,744,000 after acquiring an additional 16,873 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 29,669 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,149,000 after acquiring an additional 3,374 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

First Merchants Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME opened at $39.93 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.92. First Merchants has a one year low of $34.66 and a one year high of $43.22. The company has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.74 and a beta of 0.85.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.07. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 9.58%. The firm had revenue of $163.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $201.91 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.00 EPS. Analysts anticipate that First Merchants will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. This is an increase from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. First Merchants’s payout ratio is presently 42.35%.

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.