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

Kennondale Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in First Merchants Co. (NASDAQ:FRME) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 13,495 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $538,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in First Merchants by 67.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 134,136 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,368,000 after acquiring an additional 54,265 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its holdings in First Merchants by 123.8% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 24,174 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $899,000 after acquiring an additional 13,370 shares during the last quarter. Sentinel Pension Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in First Merchants in the 4th quarter valued at $607,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in 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 valued at $37,133,000 after acquiring an additional 332,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in First Merchants by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,052 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. 73.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Merchants Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $40.68 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $41.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.47. The stock has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.89 and a beta of 1.05. First Merchants Co. has a 1-year low of $30.55 and a 1-year high of $46.13.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.10. First Merchants had a net margin of 18.76% and a return on equity of 9.23%. On average, research analysts expect that First Merchants Co. will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Merchants Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. First Merchants’s payout ratio is 40.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FRME. Hovde Group upgraded First Merchants from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective (up from $42.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective (up from $52.00) on shares of First Merchants in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.