William Blair Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in First Merchants Corporation $FRME

William Blair Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 724,679 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 59,782 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $27,755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,789 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,227,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 30.0% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,070 shares of the bank’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 1,401 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 22.3% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 10,364 shares of the bank’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,891 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 98.4% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the bank’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 885 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS raised its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 12,500 shares of the bank’s stock worth $479,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $35.71 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $39.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.31. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 9.25 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. First Merchants Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.13 and a 52 week high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $170.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.13 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 21.35%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is 37.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings cut First Merchants from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on First Merchants from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Raymond James Financial downgraded First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.00.

About First Merchants

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.