First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Position Reduced by Sapient Capital LLC

Sapient Capital LLC trimmed its stake in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 15.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,455 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,497 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $315,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,571,539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $243,673,000 after acquiring an additional 32,126 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in First Merchants by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,475,053 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $115,682,000 after purchasing an additional 180,323 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in First Merchants by 2.9% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,694,006 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $89,683,000 after purchasing an additional 75,677 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in First Merchants by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 853,075 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,632,000 after purchasing an additional 11,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp grew its position in First Merchants by 457.3% during the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 581,863 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,370,000 after purchasing an additional 477,462 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of 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 lifted their target price on shares of First Merchants from $41.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.20.

First Merchants Stock Performance

First Merchants stock opened at $37.75 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a PE ratio of 10.88 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. First Merchants Co. has a 1 year low of $25.70 and a 1 year high of $42.44.

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

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.35%.

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.