Assetmark Inc. Acquires 388 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 12.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,616 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $135,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FRME. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in First Merchants by 1.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,962,000 after buying an additional 11,521 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 18,321 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010 shares during the period. Rosenthal Henry Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rosenthal Henry Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 77,303 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 17,072 shares of the bank’s stock worth $635,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $203,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FRME has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. 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 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three investment 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.60.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $43.48 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. First Merchants Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.20 and a fifty-two week high of $45.08. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 14.35 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $38.04 and a 200-day moving average of $36.25.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by ($0.06). First Merchants had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The company had revenue of $265.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.20%.

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.