First Merchants (FRME) Set to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) is scheduled to be posting its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, October 24th. Analysts expect First Merchants to post earnings of $0.91 per share for the quarter. Individual that are interested in registering for the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.10). First Merchants had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 9.17%. The firm had revenue of $267.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $156.35 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect First Merchants to post $3 EPS for the current fiscal year and $4 EPS for the next fiscal year.

First Merchants Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME opened at $39.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market cap of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.35 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.00 and a 200-day moving average of $35.34. First Merchants has a one year low of $25.70 and a one year high of $42.44.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.35%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on FRME. Hovde Group began coverage on First Merchants in a research note on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.20.

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.