Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 1,158 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lessened its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 695,766 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,158 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned approximately 1.19% of First Merchants worth $23,162,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Merchants Corp lifted its stake in First Merchants by 457.3% during the 2nd quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 581,863 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,370,000 after acquiring an additional 477,462 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 4th quarter worth $14,400,000. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Merchants during the second quarter valued at about $8,218,000. rhino investment partners Inc bought a new position in shares of First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at about $8,572,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,475,053 shares of the bank’s stock worth $115,682,000 after purchasing an additional 180,323 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FRME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stephens cut shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Hovde Group assumed coverage on First Merchants in a research note on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.20.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $37.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $25.70 and a 1-year high of $42.44.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $267.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.35 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.17% and a net margin of 17.77%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. Analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

First Merchants 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.