First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.20.

FRME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of First Merchants from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Stephens downgraded First Merchants from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and set a $45.00 price objective (up previously from $43.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Hovde Group started coverage on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, August 12th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $38.00 price target for the company.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Patrick J. Fehring sold 23,936 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.51, for a total transaction of $778,159.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 122,706 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,989,172.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FRME. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in First Merchants by 4,586.1% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 700,711 shares of the bank's stock worth $25,982,000 after purchasing an additional 685,758 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp raised its position in First Merchants by 457.3% during the second 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 position in First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,400,000. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in First Merchants in the second quarter worth approximately $8,218,000. Finally, rhino investment partners Inc acquired a new position in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth $8,572,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company's stock.

First Merchants Trading Up 5.2 %

NASDAQ FRME traded up $1.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $38.42. The company's stock had a trading volume of 247,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 252,574. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. First Merchants has a 52-week low of $25.70 and a 52-week high of $42.44. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $35.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.40.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $267.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $156.35 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 17.77%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 5th. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.