Stephens Upgrades First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) to Hold

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) was upgraded by equities researchers at Stephens to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on First Merchants from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded First Merchants from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.00.

First Merchants Stock Down 1.5%

FRME stock opened at $40.03 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. First Merchants has a 1 year low of $34.66 and a 1 year high of $45.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.01. The firm has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 0.84.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.28). First Merchants had a net margin of 17.05% and a return on equity of 8.86%. The company had revenue of $202.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.78 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that First Merchants will post 3.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FRME. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Merchants during the second quarter worth approximately $27,195,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the second quarter worth $2,939,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of First Merchants by 46.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 243,276 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,422,000 after acquiring an additional 77,155 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its position in First Merchants by 892.3% during the first quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 84,049 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,255,000 after acquiring an additional 75,579 shares during the period. Finally, OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new position in First Merchants during the second quarter worth $4,273,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

First Merchants Company Profile

First Merchants Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, and the parent company of First Merchants Bank. The bank provides a broad range of financial products and services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions.

Its offerings include consumer and commercial deposit accounts, residential and commercial lending, business banking, treasury management, mortgage services, investment and wealth management, and trust services. First Merchants also provides specialized financing and advisory solutions for commercial customers and other organizations.

First Merchants serves customers through banking offices and digital channels across Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.