William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys 19,932 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME - Free Report) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 820,649 shares of the bank's stock after acquiring an additional 19,932 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned about 1.40% of First Merchants worth $32,736,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FRME. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 67.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 134,136 shares of the bank's stock worth $5,368,000 after purchasing an additional 54,265 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its position in First Merchants by 123.8% during the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 24,174 shares of the bank's stock worth $899,000 after buying an additional 13,370 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants during the 4th quarter worth $607,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of 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. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on FRME shares. Hovde Group upgraded shares of First Merchants from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research note 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 note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $49.00.

First Merchants Price Performance

FRME stock traded down $0.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $40.24. The stock had a trading volume of 1,578,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 244,317. 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 52 week low of $30.55 and a 52 week high of $46.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.77 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.49.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 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%. As a group, research analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants's dividend payout ratio is currently 40.94%.

First Merchants Profile

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.