OLD National Bancorp IN Sells 11,024 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

OLD National Bancorp IN cut its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 25.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,115 shares of the bank's stock after selling 11,024 shares during the quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN owned about 0.06% of First Merchants worth $1,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in First Merchants by 3,889.0% in the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,092,101,000 after acquiring an additional 26,691,490 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in First Merchants by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank's stock worth $252,780,000 after buying an additional 138,689 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in First Merchants by 55.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank's stock worth $37,133,000 after buying an additional 332,168 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in First Merchants by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 820,649 shares of the bank's stock worth $32,736,000 after buying an additional 19,932 shares during the period. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP raised its holdings in 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 during the period. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FRME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on First Merchants from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, First Merchants currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.40.

First Merchants Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $35.98. 289,091 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 264,497. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. First Merchants Co. has a 52-week low of $30.80 and a 52-week high of $46.13. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $36.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.99. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 1.03.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $160.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $171.23 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. As a group, research analysts predict that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. This is a boost from First Merchants's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.00%. First Merchants's payout ratio is presently 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.