Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Has $596,000 Stock Position in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP raised its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 12.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,936 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,669 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP’s holdings in First Merchants were worth $596,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of First Merchants by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,388 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the period. Waterfront Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Waterfront Wealth Inc. now owns 26,908 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,073,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in First Merchants by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 17,308 shares of the bank’s stock worth $690,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in First Merchants by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 7,141 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in First Merchants by 108.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 750 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FRME has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price target (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Hovde Group upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, First Merchants presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

First Merchants Price Performance

FRME opened at $41.26 on Tuesday. First Merchants Co. has a 12 month low of $30.55 and a 12 month high of $46.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.55.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, research analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is 40.94%.

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.