First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Shares Bought by AQR Capital Management LLC

AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 138,446 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,424 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.24% of First Merchants worth $4,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in First Merchants by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 42,146 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,563,000 after purchasing an additional 8,101 shares in the last quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in First Merchants by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 853,075 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,632,000 after acquiring an additional 11,842 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in First Merchants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $243,673,000 after acquiring an additional 32,126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $229,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Hovde Group began coverage on First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. Stephens lowered First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. 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 report on Monday, July 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, First Merchants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.20.

First Merchants Trading Up 1.3 %

First Merchants stock opened at $36.19 on Friday. First Merchants Co. has a 52 week low of $25.70 and a 52 week high of $42.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.43 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $37.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.17.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.35 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.02 EPS. Research analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

About First Merchants

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.