First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Shares Acquired by GAMMA Investing LLC

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 10,900.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,231 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 21,038 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC's holdings in First Merchants were worth $859,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 121,969 shares of the bank's stock worth $4,866,000 after purchasing an additional 9,679 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank's stock worth $37,133,000 after purchasing an additional 332,168 shares in the last quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 43.2% during the fourth quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 41,781 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,667,000 after purchasing an additional 12,600 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 120,622 shares of the bank's stock worth $4,812,000 after purchasing an additional 19,063 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the fourth quarter worth approximately $470,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on FRME. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on First Merchants from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.40.

First Merchants Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:FRME traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $35.93. The company had a trading volume of 1,052,556 shares, compared to its average volume of 268,073. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.97 and a 200 day moving average of $39.63. The company has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.09 and a beta of 1.03. First Merchants Corporation has a 1 year low of $31.16 and a 1 year high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.03. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.28% and a net margin of 19.63%. The business had revenue of $160.32 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $171.23 million. Sell-side analysts expect that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. This is a positive change from First Merchants's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio is 40.45%.

First Merchants Profile

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.