Great Lakes Advisors LLC Has $4.53 Million Stock Holdings in First Merchants Corporation $FRME

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

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Systematic Financial Management LP raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 749,055 shares of the bank's stock worth $29,880,000 after buying an additional 66,380 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 626,508 shares of the bank's stock worth $24,991,000 after buying an additional 43,066 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 1st quarter worth approximately $24,523,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 472,974 shares of the bank's stock worth $19,127,000 after purchasing an additional 4,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 49.3% in the 1st quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 340,800 shares of the bank's stock worth $13,782,000 after purchasing an additional 112,500 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

First Merchants Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of First Merchants stock traded down $0.36 during trading on Friday, hitting $40.03. The stock had a trading volume of 149,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 193,207. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.77. First Merchants Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.13 and a 1 year high of $46.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of 10.37 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

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

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be given a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. First Merchants's payout ratio is presently 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.