First Merchants Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.35 (NASDAQ:FRME)

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 16th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.35 per share by the bank on Friday, September 20th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th.

First Merchants has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.8% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. First Merchants has a payout ratio of 39.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect First Merchants to earn $3.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 39.2%.

First Merchants Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of FRME stock traded down $0.44 on Wednesday, reaching $37.75. 202,735 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 251,287. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $25.70 and a 52 week high of $42.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a PE ratio of 10.85 and a beta of 1.04. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $36.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.69.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $267.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.35 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 9.17%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on FRME. Stephens lowered First Merchants from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Hovde Group initiated coverage on First Merchants in a research note on Monday, August 12th. They set a "market perform" rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $42.20.

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.