Short Interest in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Increases By 18.3%

by · The Markets Daily

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 619,500 shares, an increase of 18.3% from the March 15th total of 523,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 284,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Merchants

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of First Merchants by 3,889.0% in the 4th quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,092,101,000 after purchasing an additional 26,691,490 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in First Merchants by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $252,780,000 after buying an additional 138,689 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,400,821 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,120,000 after acquiring an additional 11,430 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 886,088 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,962,000 after acquiring an additional 11,521 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James cut their target price on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Hovde Group upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.20.

View Our Latest Research Report on FRME

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FRME opened at $36.23 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 0.95. First Merchants has a fifty-two week low of $30.55 and a fifty-two week 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 – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.23%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.94%.

First Merchants Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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