Piper Sandler Cuts First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Price Target to $46.00

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) had its price target trimmed by Piper Sandler from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on FRME. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Stephens raised First Merchants to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

FRME stock opened at $39.29 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.23. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $34.66 and a 52 week high of $45.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.59 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.28). First Merchants had a net margin of 17.05% and a return on equity of 8.86%. The company had revenue of $202.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.78 million. Research analysts anticipate that First Merchants will post 3.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.44%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Merchants

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FRME. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Merchants in the second quarter worth about $232,637,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in First Merchants by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,017 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $139,272,000 after purchasing an additional 277,977 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its stake in First Merchants by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 861,995 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,385,000 after purchasing an additional 83,667 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in First Merchants by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 725,259 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,089,000 after buying an additional 9,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,195,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About First Merchants

First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ: FRME) is a financial services company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana. Through its principal subsidiary, First Merchants Bank, the company provides banking and related financial services to individuals, families, businesses, and institutions.

Its offerings include personal and business deposit accounts, consumer and commercial loans, residential mortgage lending, cash-management and treasury services, investment and trust services, and wealth-management solutions.