NASDAQ:FRME - First Merchants Stock Price, News, & Analysis

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

First Merchants declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 8th. Investors of record on Friday, December 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share on Friday, December 21st. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 6th. View First Merchants' Dividend History.

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October, 24th. The bank reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.03. The bank earned $106.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $104.90 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 30.43% and a return on equity of 11.16%. View First Merchants' Earnings History.

First Merchants is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, January 31st 2019. View Earnings Estimates for First Merchants.

4 brokerages have issued 12-month price objectives for First Merchants' stock. Their forecasts range from $47.00 to $52.00. On average, they anticipate First Merchants' stock price to reach $48.6667 in the next twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 32.1% from the stock's current price. View Analyst Price Targets for First Merchants.

4 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for First Merchants in the last year. There are currently 2 hold ratings and 2 buy ratings for the stock, resulting in a consensus recommendation of "Buy." View Analyst Ratings for First Merchants.

Media stories about FRME stock have been trending negative this week, InfoTrie Sentiment reports. The research firm identifies negative and positive news coverage by monitoring more than six thousand blog and news sources in real time. The firm ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative five to positive five, with scores closest to five being the most favorable. First Merchants earned a media sentiment score of -2.5 on InfoTrie's scale. They also assigned media stories about the bank a news buzz of 2.0 out of 10, indicating that recent news coverage is very unlikely to have an impact on the stock's share price in the next several days.

First Merchants saw a increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 921,485 shares, an increase of 44.1% from the December 14th total of 639,680 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 219,378 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days. Currently, 1.9% of the company's shares are sold short. View First Merchants' Current Options Chain.

Some companies that are related to First Merchants include Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR), Akbank T.A.S. (AKBTY), BOK Financial (BOKF), Webster Financial (WBS), First Horizon National (FHN), CIT Group (CIT), PacWest Bancorp (PACW), Synovus Financial (SNV), Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP), Sterling Bancorp (STL), MB Financial (MBFI), F.N.B. (FNB), TCF Financial (TCF), UMB Financial (UMBF) and Community Bank System (CBU).

First Merchants' stock is owned by many different of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders include Park National Corp OH (0.16%), First Financial Bank Trust Division (0.15%) and CX Institutional (0.00%). Company insiders that own First Merchants stock include Gary Lehman, Mark K Hardwick, Michael C Marhenke, Michael C Rechin, Michael J Stewart, Michele Kawiecki, Patrick A Sherman, Stephan Fluhler, Terry L Walker and William L Hoy. View Institutional Ownership Trends for First Merchants.

FRME stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Park National Corp OH. Company insiders that have sold First Merchants company stock in the last year include Mark K Hardwick, Michael C Marhenke, Michael C Rechin, Michael J Stewart, Michele Kawiecki and Stephan Fluhler. View Insider Buying and Selling for First Merchants.

FRME stock was acquired by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including First Financial Bank Trust Division and CX Institutional. Company insiders that have bought First Merchants stock in the last two years include Gary Lehman, Michael C Marhenke, Patrick A Sherman and Terry L Walker. View Insider Buying and Selling for First Merchants.

Shares of FRME can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of FRME stock can currently be purchased for approximately $36.84.

First Merchants has a market capitalization of $1.82 billion and generates $385.90 million in revenue each year. The bank earns $96.07 million in net income (profit) each year or $2.41 on an earnings per share basis. First Merchants employs 1,684 workers across the globe.

The official website for First Merchants is http://www.firstmerchants.com.

First Merchants' mailing address is 200 EAST JACKSON STREET, MUNCIE IN, 47305. The bank can be reached via phone at 765-747-1500 or via email at [email protected]