Prudential Financial Inc. Has $1.38 Million Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its holdings in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME – Free Report) by 31.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,757 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 14,414 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $1,381,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in First Merchants by 3,889.0% during the 4th quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,092,101,000 after purchasing an additional 26,691,490 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $252,780,000 after buying an additional 138,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,400,821 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,120,000 after buying an additional 11,430 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,133,000 after acquiring an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,962,000 after acquiring an additional 11,521 shares during the period. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on FRME shares. Hovde Group raised shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price target (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.20.

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First Merchants Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $35.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a PE ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a 52 week low of $30.55 and a 52 week high of $46.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.23%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.93%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.94%.

First Merchants Profile

(Free Report)

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.