Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Raises Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 27.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,524 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $57,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 97,357 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,610,000 after buying an additional 21,632 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 18,817 shares of the bank’s stock worth $698,000 after buying an additional 1,232 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 42,584 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,579,000 after buying an additional 1,380 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 27.8% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,337 shares of the bank’s stock worth $569,000 after buying an additional 3,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phocas Financial Corp. raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 266,711 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,890,000 after buying an additional 4,845 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Stephan Fluhler sold 3,193 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.17, for a total transaction of $105,911.81. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $798,401.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FRME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James raised their price target on First Merchants from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

First Merchants Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ FRME opened at $34.13 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.08. First Merchants Co. has a twelve month low of $24.52 and a twelve month high of $38.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.84 and a beta of 1.08.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87. First Merchants had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 20.15%. The business had revenue of $156.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $158.50 million. Research analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.19%.

First Merchants Profile

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.