Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 10,041 First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Natixis Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 10,041 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $374,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 78.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,893 shares of the bank’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 835 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 511.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,920 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 1,606 shares during the period. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of First Merchants during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $79,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Stephens downgraded First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Hovde Group assumed coverage on First Merchants in a research note on Monday, August 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.60.

First Merchants Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $43.96 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $30.25 and a 1-year high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $265.95 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $160.55 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.18%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.20%.

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.