First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.20.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Stephens cut shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FRME. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of First Merchants in the second quarter worth $45,000. Finally, CWM LLC raised its stake in First Merchants by 511.5% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,920 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 1,606 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of FRME stock opened at $36.93 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.64 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $37.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. First Merchants has a 12-month low of $25.70 and a 12-month high of $42.44.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.17% and a net margin of 17.77%. The business had revenue of $267.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that First Merchants will post 3.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

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.