Swiss National Bank Acquires 600 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Swiss National Bank grew its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 115,062 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.20% of First Merchants worth $4,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 108.3% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 750 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in First Merchants by 139.1% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,289 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 270.1% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,728 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 1,991 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,052 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in First Merchants during the third quarter worth $153,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price target (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target (up from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hovde Group raised First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, First Merchants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

First Merchants Price Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $41.26 on Tuesday. First Merchants Co. has a 52 week low of $30.55 and a 52 week high of $46.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $42.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.55. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.23%. Equities analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.94%.

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.