Teacher Retirement System of Texas Decreases Stock Position in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas cut its stake in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 17.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,459 shares of the bank's stock after selling 8,130 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.07% of First Merchants worth $1,555,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in First Merchants by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank's stock valued at $252,780,000 after buying an additional 138,689 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 820,649 shares of the bank's stock valued at $32,736,000 after buying an additional 19,932 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 9.7% in 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in First Merchants by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 745,439 shares of the bank's stock valued at $29,736,000 after buying an additional 49,384 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in First Merchants by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 731,413 shares of the bank's stock valued at $29,176,000 after acquiring an additional 9,265 shares during the period. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on FRME. Piper Sandler cut their price target 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 reduced 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.40.

First Merchants Price Performance

First Merchants stock traded down $1.17 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $40.56. 135,302 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 273,488. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. First Merchants Corporation has a one year low of $33.13 and a one year high of $46.13. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.44 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.34.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.03. First Merchants had a net margin of 19.63% and a return on equity of 9.28%. The company had revenue of $160.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $171.23 million. On average, equities analysts predict that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th were given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This is a boost from First Merchants's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.45%.

About First Merchants

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.