Federated Hermes Inc. Invests $37,000 in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 929 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $37,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FRME. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 67.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 134,136 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,368,000 after buying an additional 54,265 shares during the period. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in First Merchants in the fourth quarter valued at $607,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in First Merchants by 55.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $37,133,000 after purchasing an additional 332,168 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in First Merchants by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,052 shares of the bank’s stock worth $122,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of First Merchants by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 43,275 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,610,000 after purchasing an additional 5,016 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FRME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Hovde Group upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 target price (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James lowered their target price on First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.20.

First Merchants Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME opened at $35.53 on Friday. First Merchants Co. has a 12-month low of $30.55 and a 12-month high of $46.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.39 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.94%.

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.