Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Sells 2,109 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,270 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,109 shares during the quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC owned about 0.07% of First Merchants worth $1,726,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of FRME. PL Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 26,691,490 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of First Merchants during the fourth quarter valued at $19,014,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 55.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $37,133,000 after acquiring an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the fourth quarter worth about $7,251,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in First Merchants by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank’s stock worth $252,780,000 after purchasing an additional 138,689 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Hovde Group raised shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note 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 for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, First Merchants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.20.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.2 %

FRME opened at $40.11 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $42.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a PE ratio of 11.73 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a twelve month low of $30.55 and a twelve month high of $46.13. 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) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a return on equity of 9.23% and a net margin of 18.76%. Equities research analysts anticipate that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.94%.

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.