Fisher Asset Management LLC Sells 54,489 Shares of First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Fisher Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 11.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 441,788 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 54,489 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned about 0.77% of First Merchants worth $16,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in First Merchants by 98.4% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the first quarter worth $223,000. CWM LLC increased its position in First Merchants by 30.0% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,070 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 1,401 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter valued at about $235,000. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on FRME. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of First Merchants from $48.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research cut First Merchants from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.60.

First Merchants Price Performance

NASDAQ FRME opened at $37.52 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. First Merchants Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.13 and a 12 month high of $45.62. The stock has a market cap of $2.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.38 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day moving average is $36.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.27.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.03. First Merchants had a net margin of 22.04% and a return on equity of 9.82%. The firm had revenue of $172.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $172.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.00%.

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.