First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) Receives $49.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three 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 ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.00.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded First Merchants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Merchants

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $27,195,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in First Merchants during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,939,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 46.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 243,276 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,422,000 after purchasing an additional 77,155 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 892.3% in the 1st quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 84,049 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,255,000 after purchasing an additional 75,579 shares during the period. Finally, OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,273,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Price Performance

NASDAQ FRME opened at $40.87 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.97. First Merchants has a twelve month low of $34.66 and a twelve month high of $45.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a PE ratio of 13.10 and a beta of 0.84.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $202.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.78 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 17.05% and a return on equity of 8.86%. On average, research analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is currently 47.44%.

About First Merchants

First Merchants Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, and the parent company of First Merchants Bank. The bank provides a broad range of financial products and services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions.

Its offerings include consumer and commercial deposit accounts, residential and commercial lending, business banking, treasury management, mortgage services, investment and wealth management, and trust services. First Merchants also provides specialized financing and advisory solutions for commercial customers and other organizations.

First Merchants serves customers through banking offices and digital channels across Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.