Aurora Investment Counsel Has $1.25 Million Stock Position in First Merchants Corporation $FRME

Aurora Investment Counsel reduced its position in First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,701 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 426 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel owned about 0.06% of First Merchants worth $1,252,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $46,000. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $56,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in First Merchants by 98.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in First Merchants by 44.2% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,669 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System acquired a new stake in First Merchants in the 1st quarter valued at about $216,000. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on FRME. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of First Merchants from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

First Merchants Stock Up 2.9%

NASDAQ FRME opened at $36.75 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. First Merchants Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.13 and a 1-year high of $46.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $39.27 and a 200-day moving average of $38.31. The company has a market cap of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52 and a beta of 1.05.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.04. First Merchants had a net margin of 21.35% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company had revenue of $170.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.13 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that First Merchants Corporation will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.31%.

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.