Vest Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 34,399 First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Vest Financial LLC acquired a new stake in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 34,399 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,297,000. Vest Financial LLC owned 0.06% of First Merchants at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in First Merchants during the 2nd quarter valued at $270,000. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 2nd quarter valued at about $599,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of First Merchants during the second quarter valued at about $6,109,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in First Merchants by 0.3% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,789 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,227,000 after buying an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $2,749,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on FRME. Raymond James Financial downgraded First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.60.

First Merchants Trading Down 3.9%

First Merchants stock opened at $38.09 on Friday. First Merchants Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.13 and a 12 month high of $45.62. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.39. 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 (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $172.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.78 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.82% and a net margin of 22.04%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.00%.

About First Merchants

First Merchants Corporation, through its subsidiary First Merchants Bank, offers a comprehensive suite of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses and public sector clients. The company’s core business activities include retail and commercial banking, lending, treasury and cash management, and wealth advisory services. With a focus on relationship banking, First Merchants seeks to deliver tailored solutions for deposit accounts, loan financing and other credit products.

On the consumer side, First Merchants provides checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, personal and mortgage loans, and electronic banking conveniences.