First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

Separately, Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th.

First Merchants Price Performance

Shares of FRME opened at $35.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of 9.37 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s 50-day moving average is $33.78 and its 200-day moving average is $33.02. First Merchants has a fifty-two week low of $24.52 and a fifty-two week high of $38.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.87. The company had revenue of $156.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.50 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 22.39% and a return on equity of 10.97%. Equities analysts forecast that First Merchants will post 3.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at First Merchants

In related news, insider Stephan Fluhler sold 3,193 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.17, for a total value of $105,911.81. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,070 shares in the company, valued at $798,401.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FRME. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in First Merchants by 27.6% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,524 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in First Merchants by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,806 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in First Merchants by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 16,405 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $608,000 after buying an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

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.