American Century Companies Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in First Merchants Corporation $FRME

American Century Companies Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 20.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,099,458 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 289,600 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $44,462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of First Merchants by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 23,650 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $879,000 after buying an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in First Merchants by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 41,288 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,670,000 after purchasing an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in First Merchants by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 13,262 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 468 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc raised its stake in First Merchants by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 7,335 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in First Merchants by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 21,083 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $841,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FRME has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on First Merchants from $52.00 to $49.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on First Merchants from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.25.

First Merchants Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of FRME opened at $39.50 on Thursday. First Merchants Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.13 and a 52-week high of $46.13. The company has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.23 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.04. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 21.35%.The business had revenue of $170.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.13 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.31%.

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.