William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $28.86 Million Stock Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 0.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 826,919 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 535 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.41% of First Merchants worth $28,859,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FRME. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 992,748 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,618,000 after purchasing an additional 71,527 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,539,413 shares of the bank’s stock worth $181,926,000 after buying an additional 84,858 shares in the last quarter. Ullmann Wealth Partners Group LLC bought a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at $208,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 128,639 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,770,000 after acquiring an additional 15,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schechter Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at about $216,000. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FRME has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $41.00 to $42.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Insider Activity at First Merchants

In other First Merchants news, Director Patrick J. Fehring sold 23,936 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.51, for a total transaction of $778,159.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 122,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,989,172.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

First Merchants Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of FRME stock opened at $39.64 on Thursday. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $25.70 and a 1-year high of $39.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.42 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $33.40 and a 200-day moving average of $33.96.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The bank reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.03. First Merchants had a return on equity of 10.21% and a net margin of 20.15%. The business had revenue of $153.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $154.95 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This is an increase from First Merchants’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.35%.

First Merchants Company 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.