Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 41,256 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 764 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. owned 0.07% of First Merchants worth $1,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at $251,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 84.1% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 31,082 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,024,000 after buying an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in First Merchants by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 51,137 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,785,000 after buying an additional 2,089 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank increased its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1,313.6% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 7,266 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $254,000 after acquiring an additional 6,752 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $193,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FRME shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Hovde Group assumed coverage on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, August 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stephens downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective 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 issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Merchants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.60.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $43.48 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.25. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $30.20 and a 1-year high of $45.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 14.35 and a beta of 1.01.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its earnings results 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). First Merchants had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The firm had revenue of $265.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $160.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.