First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analyst sentiment is moderately bullish: First Merchants has a “Moderate Buy” consensus from six analysts, split between three buy and three hold ratings, with an average 12-month price target of $49.00.
• The bank reported quarterly EPS of $0.74, missing the $1.02 consensus estimate, while revenue of $202.49 million was roughly in line with expectations.
• First Merchants declared a quarterly dividend of $0.37 per share, equivalent to a $1.48 annualized payout and a 3.6% yield; institutional investors own 73.92% of the stock.

First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.00.

Several research firms recently commented on FRME. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of First Merchants from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, May 17th.

First Merchants Price Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $41.11 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. First Merchants has a 1-year low of $34.66 and a 1-year high of $45.33. The business's fifty day moving average price is $42.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18 and a beta of 0.84.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.28). First Merchants had a return on equity of 8.86% and a net margin of 17.05%.The business had revenue of $202.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.78 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. First Merchants's payout ratio is 47.44%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Merchants

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 2nd quarter valued at about $232,637,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in First Merchants by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,017 shares of the bank's stock valued at $139,272,000 after buying an additional 277,977 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in First Merchants by 4,292.5% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,111,602 shares of the bank's stock valued at $135,946,000 after buying an additional 3,040,763 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in First Merchants by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,005,625 shares of the bank's stock valued at $76,815,000 after acquiring an additional 6,924 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 1,058,247 shares of the bank's stock valued at $39,663,000 after purchasing an additional 104,260 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About First Merchants

First Merchants Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, and the parent company of First Merchants Bank. The bank provides a broad range of financial products and services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions.

Its offerings include consumer and commercial deposit accounts, residential and commercial lending, business banking, treasury management, mortgage services, investment and wealth management, and trust services. First Merchants also provides specialized financing and advisory solutions for commercial customers and other organizations.

First Merchants serves customers through banking offices and digital channels across Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.

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