First Merchants - FRME Stock Forecast, Price & News

2 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for First Merchants in the last year. There are currently 1 buy rating and 1 strong buy rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "strong buy" FRME shares.
View FRME analyst ratings or view top-rated stocks.

2 brokerages have issued twelve-month price objectives for First Merchants' shares. Their FRME share price forecasts range from $46.00 to $52.00. On average, they expect the company's stock price to reach $49.33 in the next twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 21.0% from the stock's current price.
View analysts price targets for FRME or view top-rated stocks among Wall Street analysts.

First Merchants' stock was trading at $41.11 at the start of the year. Since then, FRME stock has decreased by 0.8% and is now trading at $40.77.
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First Merchants saw a increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totaling 576,900 shares, an increase of 15.4% from the December 31st total of 499,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 163,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.
View First Merchants' Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Tuesday, April 25th 2023.
View our FRME earnings forecast.

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October, 25th. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.07. The bank earned $133.22 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.07 million. First Merchants had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 13.01% and a net margin of 31.15%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.67 EPS.

First Merchants announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share on Friday, December 16th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 1st.
Read our dividend analysis for FRME.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 3.17%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 11 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 33.60%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, FRME will have a dividend payout ratio of 28.83% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for FRME.

48 employees have rated First Merchants Chief Executive Officer Michael C. Rechin on Glassdoor.com. Michael C. Rechin has an approval rating of 82% among the company's employees.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other First Merchants investors own include BankFinancial (BFIN), Energy Transfer (ET), Main Street Capital (MAIN), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), AbbVie (ABBV), Comerica (CMA), Huntington Bancshares (HBAN), International Business Machines (IBM), Iron Mountain (IRM) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).

First Merchants trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FRME."

First Merchants' stock is owned by a number of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors include Strs Ohio (0.30%), OneAscent Financial Services LLC (0.18%), First Merchants Corp (0.15%), TIAA FSB (0.02%), Natixis Advisors L.P. (0.02%) and Dupont Capital Management Corp (0.01%). Insiders that own company stock include Charles E Schalliol, Mark K Hardwick, Michael C Marhenke, Michael C Marhenke, Michael C Rechin, Michael J Stewart, Michael R Becher, Patrick A Sherman, Patrick A Sherman, Patrick J Fehring, Stephan Fluhler and William L Hoy.
View institutional ownership trends.

Shares of FRME stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include WeBull, Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
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One share of FRME stock can currently be purchased for approximately $40.77.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion and generates $582.16 million in revenue each year. The bank earns $205.53 million in net income (profit) each year or $3.81 on an earnings per share basis.

The company employs 1,821 workers across the globe.

First Merchants' mailing address is 200 EAST JACKSON STREET, MUNCIE IN, 47305. The official website for the company is www.firstmerchants.com. The bank can be reached via phone at (765) 747-1500, via email at nweaver@firstmerchants.com, or via fax at 765-282-6304.