Systematic Financial Management LP Acquires 66,380 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 749,055 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 66,380 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP owned 1.28% of First Merchants worth $29,880,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FRME. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 89.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 112,290 shares of the bank's stock valued at $4,176,000 after purchasing an additional 53,033 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 139.1% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,289 shares of the bank's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Goelzer Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at about $270,000. KBC Group NV increased its position in First Merchants by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,052 shares of the bank's stock valued at $122,000 after buying an additional 665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its stake in First Merchants by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 44,139 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FRME. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of First Merchants from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Hovde Group raised shares of First Merchants from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target 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 decreased their target price on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.40.

First Merchants Stock Down 0.2%

First Merchants stock opened at $39.18 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.46 and a beta of 1.02. 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 one year low of $30.55 and a one year high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The bank reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $160.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $171.23 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.68%. This is a positive change from First Merchants's previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.33%.

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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