First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 523,500 shares, an increase of 23.7% from the February 28th total of 423,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 269,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.9 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Trading of First Merchants

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 3,889.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,377,823 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,092,101,000 after buying an additional 26,691,490 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in First Merchants by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,336,937 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $252,780,000 after purchasing an additional 138,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,400,821 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,120,000 after buying an additional 11,430 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 55.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 930,896 shares of the bank’s stock worth $37,133,000 after buying an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 1.3% in 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 period. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

First Merchants Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of FRME traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $40.05. The company had a trading volume of 35,373 shares, compared to its average volume of 265,717. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $42.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.72. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $30.55 and a 52 week high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on FRME shares. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target (up previously from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Hovde Group upgraded First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.00.

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.