Nuveen LLC Acquires Shares of 606,404 First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Key Points

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Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 606,404 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $24,523,000. Nuveen LLC owned 1.04% of First Merchants as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in First Merchants by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 23,650 shares of the bank's stock valued at $879,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in First Merchants by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 24,573 shares of the bank's stock valued at $994,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at about $921,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,101,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in First Merchants by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 17,005 shares of the bank's stock valued at $688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FRME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, First Merchants has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $48.25.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME traded up $2.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $41.74. The company's stock had a trading volume of 320,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 232,889. The company has a 50-day moving average of $39.05 and a 200-day moving average of $39.14. First Merchants Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.13 and a 12 month high of $46.13. 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 $2.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81 and a beta of 1.08.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $170.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $172.13 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.