First Merchants Corporation $FRME Shares Sold by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its stake in First Merchants Corporation by 16.1%, owning 112,125 shares valued at approximately $4.53 million after selling 21,479 shares in Q1.
• Multiple large investors adjusted their stakes, with Ceredex Value Advisors LLC increasing its position by 49.3% and Systematic Financial Management LP boosting its holding by 9.7%.
• First Merchants reported earnings of $0.98 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.36 with a 3.6% yield.

Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 16.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 112,125 shares of the bank's stock after selling 21,479 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC owned 0.19% of First Merchants worth $4,534,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in First Merchants by 4.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 34,708 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,404,000 after buying an additional 1,522 shares during the period. Curi RMB Capital LLC acquired a new position in First Merchants during the first quarter worth about $5,055,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in First Merchants by 19.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 118,650 shares of the bank's stock worth $4,798,000 after buying an additional 19,375 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP grew its position in First Merchants by 285.4% during the first quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 140,438 shares of the bank's stock worth $5,679,000 after buying an additional 104,002 shares during the period. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 1,034.4% in the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 202,055 shares of the bank's stock valued at $8,171,000 after purchasing an additional 184,243 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Merchants has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $48.25.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ:FRME traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $39.83. 51,419 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 278,287. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.32 and a beta of 1.10. First Merchants Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.13 and a 52-week high of $46.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.75.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.04. First Merchants had a net margin of 21.35% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The business had revenue of $170.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio is currently 37.31%.

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.