Kennondale Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 13,495 First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME)

Kennondale Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 13,495 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $538,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FRME. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 108.3% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 750 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of First Merchants by 139.1% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,289 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV acquired a new stake in shares of First Merchants during the third quarter valued at about $89,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 270.1% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,728 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,991 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of First Merchants by 12.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,616 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of First Merchants from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (up previously from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective (up previously from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Hovde Group raised shares of First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.00.

First Merchants Stock Performance

Shares of First Merchants stock opened at $40.68 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.89 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a 12 month low of $30.55 and a 12 month high of $46.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 forecast that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.94%.

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.