HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 269 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,141 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 269 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 3,889.0% during the 4th quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,092,101,000 after purchasing an additional 26,691,490 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,400,821 shares of the bank’s stock worth $52,120,000 after buying an additional 11,430 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,133,000 after buying an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,962,000 after buying an additional 11,521 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in First Merchants by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 731,413 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,176,000 after buying an additional 9,265 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME opened at $40.11 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.73 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.74. First Merchants Co. has a 1 year low of $30.55 and a 1 year high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is presently 40.94%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FRME. Hovde Group upgraded First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James lowered their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.20.

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.