Rehmann Capital Advisory Group Sells 985 Shares of First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lessened its stake in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 8.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,461 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 985 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of First Merchants by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 41,288 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,670,000 after purchasing an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at about $768,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the 1st quarter valued at about $7,342,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position 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 valued at $5,227,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of First Merchants by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 34,339 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,820 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Zacks Research upgraded First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on First Merchants from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Raymond James Financial lowered First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $36.42 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.13 and a 52 week high of $46.13. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $39.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.30. 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 (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $172.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.78 million. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.91% and a net margin of 22.04%.During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

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

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.