Creative Planning Purchases 1,349 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,635 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,349 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $421,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in First Merchants in the second quarter worth $45,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in First Merchants by 511.5% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,920 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 1,606 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in First Merchants in the 2nd quarter worth about $79,000. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at about $193,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $229,000. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on FRME. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Hovde Group began coverage on shares of First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Stephens cut shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.20.

First Merchants Trading Up 2.4 %

First Merchants stock opened at $38.66 on Wednesday. First Merchants Co. has a 52 week low of $25.70 and a 52 week high of $42.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company has a market capitalization of $2.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.14 and a beta of 1.02.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $267.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $156.35 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 9.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.29 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.35%.

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.