Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 6,565 Shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) by 16.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,589 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,565 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in First Merchants were worth $1,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FRME. Natixis Advisors LLC bought a new position in First Merchants in the third quarter worth about $374,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 40,838 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 2,981 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of First Merchants by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 24,867 shares of the bank’s stock worth $925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,010 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Merchants in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $396,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of First Merchants by 0.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 722,148 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $26,864,000 after purchasing an additional 5,367 shares in the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective (up previously from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hovde Group upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FRME opened at $41.04 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $30.55 and a 1-year high of $46.13.

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 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 analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.94%.

First Merchants 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.