6,067 Shares in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Bought by Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,067 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 1.3% in 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 period. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of First Merchants by 6.1% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 211,132 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,854,000 after purchasing an additional 12,050 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in First Merchants by 10.6% in the third 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 period. First Merchants Corp grew its stake in First Merchants by 457.3% in the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 581,863 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,370,000 after purchasing an additional 477,462 shares during the period. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter worth $8,218,000. 73.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FRME. Hovde Group started 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. Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.60.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $42.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.18 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a twelve month low of $30.55 and a twelve month high of $46.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $39.66 and a 200 day moving average of $36.96.

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

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 46.20%.

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.