First Merchants (FRME) Competitors

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) and SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in FRME or SSB?

73.9% of First Merchants shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of SouthState shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of First Merchants shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of SouthState shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk & volatility, FRME or SSB?

First Merchants has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SouthState has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer FRME or SSB?

First Merchants presently has a consensus price target of $49.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.40%. SouthState has a consensus price target of $115.44, suggesting a potential upside of 22.95%. Given SouthState's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SouthState is more favorable than First Merchants.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First Merchants	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
SouthState	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.78

Is FRME or SSB a better dividend stock?

First Merchants pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. SouthState pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. First Merchants pays out 40.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SouthState pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. First Merchants has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and SouthState has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FRME or SSB?

SouthState received 139 more outperform votes than First Merchants when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.67% of users gave SouthState an outperform vote while only 60.20% of users gave First Merchants an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First Merchants	Outperform Votes 363 60.20%	Underperform Votes 240 39.80%
SouthState	Outperform Votes 502 61.67%	Underperform Votes 312 38.33%

Does the media prefer FRME or SSB?

In the previous week, SouthState had 6 more articles in the media than First Merchants. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for SouthState and 7 mentions for First Merchants. SouthState's average media sentiment score of 1.58 beat First Merchants' score of 1.18 indicating that SouthState is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First Merchants	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SouthState	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has higher valuation & earnings, FRME or SSB?

SouthState has higher revenue and earnings than First Merchants. First Merchants is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SouthState, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
First Merchants	$626.71M	3.83	$201.40M	$3.42	12.00
SouthState	$1.67B	5.71	$534.78M	$6.96	13.49

Is FRME or SSB more profitable?

SouthState has a net margin of 22.38% compared to First Merchants' net margin of 18.76%. SouthState's return on equity of 9.62% beat First Merchants' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First Merchants	18.76%	9.23%	1.12%
SouthState	22.38%	9.62%	1.21%

Summary

SouthState beats First Merchants on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.