First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Upgraded to “Hold” at Stephens

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) was upgraded by research analysts at Stephens to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FRME. Weiss Ratings raised First Merchants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their price target on First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, First Merchants has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of FRME stock opened at $40.03 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 0.84. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $34.66 and a 52 week high of $45.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $42.35 and a 200-day moving average of $41.01.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.78 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Merchants

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FRME. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $232,637,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 8.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,017 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $139,272,000 after acquiring an additional 277,977 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 10.7% during the first quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 861,995 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,385,000 after acquiring an additional 83,667 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 1.4% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 725,259 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,089,000 after acquiring an additional 9,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in First Merchants during the second quarter worth $27,195,000. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Company Profile

First Merchants Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, and the parent company of First Merchants Bank. The bank provides a broad range of financial products and services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions.

Its offerings include consumer and commercial deposit accounts, residential and commercial lending, business banking, treasury management, mortgage services, investment and wealth management, and trust services. First Merchants also provides specialized financing and advisory solutions for commercial customers and other organizations.

First Merchants serves customers through banking offices and digital channels across Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.