Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd Buys Shares of 7,800 First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd bought a new stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,800 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 3,889.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,092,101,000 after purchasing an additional 26,691,490 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $23,739,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,014,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,107,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James reduced 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. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on First Merchants from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Hovde Group raised First Merchants from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, First Merchants presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $46.40.

First Merchants Stock Performance

NASDAQ FRME opened at $39.05 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42 and a beta of 1.02. First Merchants Co. has a twelve month low of $30.55 and a twelve month high of $46.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.80 and a 200 day moving average of $40.53.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.03. The company 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Company 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.

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