Sanctuary Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 31,235 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 27,081,812.5% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 15,165,871 shares of the bank’s stock worth $568,417,000 after purchasing an additional 15,165,815 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in First Merchants during the 2nd quarter valued at $232,637,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in First Merchants by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,596,017 shares of the bank’s stock worth $139,272,000 after acquiring an additional 277,977 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 0.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,005,625 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $76,815,000 after acquiring an additional 6,924 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC raised its stake in shares of First Merchants by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 1,058,247 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,663,000 after acquiring an additional 104,260 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 17th. Weiss Ratings upgraded First Merchants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of FRME opened at $41.68 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a PE ratio of 13.36 and a beta of 0.84. First Merchants Corporation has a one year low of $34.66 and a one year high of $45.33.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.28). First Merchants had a return on equity of 8.86% and a net margin of 17.05%.The firm had revenue of $202.49 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.78 million. On average, analysts anticipate that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Merchants news, Director Larry W. Myers sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.50, for a total value of $415,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 99,751 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,139,666.50. This represents a 9.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.