Vanguard Group Inc. Has $243.67 Million Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,126 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of First Merchants worth $243,673,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,524 shares of the bank’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Merchants during the 4th quarter valued at about $75,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on First Merchants from $41.00 to $42.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd.

First Merchants Stock Up 3.0 %

FRME stock opened at $33.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.59 and a beta of 1.07. First Merchants Co. has a fifty-two week low of $25.70 and a fifty-two week high of $38.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $33.40 and a 200-day moving average of $34.18.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $153.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.95 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 10.21% and a net margin of 20.15%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were given a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. This is an increase from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Merchants

In other news, Director Patrick J. Fehring sold 23,936 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.51, for a total transaction of $778,159.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 122,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,989,172.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.32% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Company 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.