OneAscent Financial Services LLC Invests $4.58 Million in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 123,037 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $4,577,000. First Merchants comprises about 3.3% of OneAscent Financial Services LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,475,053 shares of the bank’s stock worth $115,682,000 after buying an additional 180,323 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 2.9% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,694,006 shares of the bank’s stock worth $89,683,000 after buying an additional 75,677 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 11,521 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in First Merchants by 457.3% during the second quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 581,863 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,370,000 after buying an additional 477,462 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in First Merchants during the second quarter worth about $8,218,000. Institutional investors own 73.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on FRME shares. Stephens cut First Merchants from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on First Merchants from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Hovde Group initiated coverage on First Merchants in a report on Monday, August 12th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of First Merchants in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, First Merchants presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.60.

First Merchants Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $43.31 on Tuesday. First Merchants Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.20 and a fifty-two week high of $45.08. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $2.54 billion, a PE ratio of 14.29 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.26.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $265.95 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $160.55 million. First Merchants had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 46.20%.

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.