First Merchants Stock Buy Hold or Sell Recommendation

FRME Stock  USD 44.97  0.92  2.09%   
Given the investment horizon of 90 days and your slightly conservative level of risk, our recommendation regarding First Merchants is 'Hold'. Macroaxis provides First Merchants buy-hold-or-sell recommendation only in the context of selected investment horizon and investor attitude towards risk assumed by holding FRME positions.
  
Check out First Merchants Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool.
For information on how to trade First Stock refer to our How to Trade First Stock guide.
Note, we conduct extensive research on individual companies such as First and provide practical buy, sell, or hold advice based on investors' constraints. First Merchants. Also, note that the market value of any company could be closely tied with the direction of predictive economic indicators such as signals in population.

Execute First Merchants Buy or Sell Advice

The First recommendation should be used to complement the buy-or-sell advice compiled from the current analysts' consensus on First Merchants. Macroaxis does not own or have any residual interests in First Merchants or other equities on which the buy-or-sell advice is provided. Please provide your input below to execute First Merchants' advice using the current market data and latest reported fundamentals.

Time Horizon

Risk Tolerance

Execute Advice
Sell First MerchantsBuy First Merchants
Hold

Market Performance

OKDetails

Volatility

Very steadyDetails

Hype Condition

Under hypedDetails

Current Valuation

OvervaluedDetails

Odds Of Distress

Very LowDetails

Economic Sensitivity

Hyperactively responds to market trendsDetails

Investor Sentiment

ImpartialDetails

Analyst Consensus

BuyDetails

Financial Strenth (F Score)

PoorDetails

Financial Leverage

Not RatedDetails

Reporting Quality (M-Score)

Unlikely ManipulatorDetails
For the selected time horizon First Merchants has a Risk Adjusted Performance of 0.0915, Jensen Alpha of (0.01), Total Risk Alpha of (0.12), Sortino Ratio of 0.0922 and Treynor Ratio of 0.1138
First Merchants advice module can be used to check and cross-verify current investment recommendation provided by analysts reviewing the company's potential to grow using all of fundamental, technical, data market data available at the time. To make sure First Merchants is not overpriced, please confirm all First Merchants fundamentals, including its debt to equity, beta, and the relationship between the net income and earnings per share . Given that First Merchants has a number of shares shorted of 469.91 K, we urge you to verify First Merchants market performance and probability of bankruptcy to ensure the company can sustain itself in the current economic cycle given your prevailing risk tolerance and investing horizon.

First Merchants Trading Alerts and Improvement Suggestions

First Merchants has a poor financial position based on the latest SEC disclosures
Over 76.0% of the company shares are owned by institutional investors
Latest headline from thelincolnianonline.com: First Merchants Sets New 12-Month High Whats Next

First Merchants Returns Distribution Density

The distribution of First Merchants' historical returns is an attempt to chart the uncertainty of First Merchants' future price movements. The chart of the probability distribution of First Merchants daily returns describes the distribution of returns around its average expected value. We use First Merchants price's Value At Risk and its Upside Potential as a relative measure of the distribution. The graph of the distribution of First Merchants returns is essential to provide solid investment advice for First Merchants.
Mean Return
0.28
Value At Risk
-3.25
Potential Upside
3.54
Standard Deviation
2.57
   Return Density   
       Distribution  
Investment risk management requires an estimate of the probability of extreme price changes. Therefore, the correct representation of the distribution of First Merchants historical returns presented in an easy-to-digest graphical form helps investors and money managers understand the risk-reward trade-off of different investement strategies.

First Stock Institutional Investors

Shares
Nuveen Asset Management, Llc2024-06-30
764.1 K
Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc2024-09-30
722.1 K
Boston Partners Global Investors, Inc2024-09-30
721.5 K
Jpmorgan Chase & Co2024-06-30
705.3 K
Public Employees Retirt Assn Of Colorado2024-06-30
695.8 K
Pl Capital Advisors, Llc2024-09-30
686.3 K
Systematic Financial Management Lp2024-09-30
682.7 K
Northern Trust Corp2024-09-30
641.1 K
First Merchants Corp2024-09-30
562.7 K
Vanguard Group Inc2024-09-30
6.2 M
Blackrock Inc2024-06-30
4.8 M
Note, although First Merchants' institutional investors appear to be way more sophisticated than retail investors, it remains unclear if professional active investment managers can reliably enhance risk-adjusted returns by an amount that exceeds fees and expenses.

First Merchants Cash Flow Accounts

201920202021202220232024 (projected)
Change In Cash38.0M15.7M(25.8M)(44.6M)(9.9M)(9.4M)
Free Cash Flow(134.0M)204.8M143.1M268.0M258.8M271.8M
Depreciation9.4M11.0M10.7M11.8M11.7M12.3M
Other Non Cash Items3.6M63.9M(12.0M)42.6M16.0M14.0M
Dividends Paid51.3M56.5M61.2M74.2M81.9M86.0M
Net Income164.5M148.6M205.5M222.1M223.8M235.0M
End Period Cash Flow177.2M192.9M167.1M122.6M112.6M116.4M
Investments(1.0B)(1.6B)(1.5B)(595.8M)(275.6M)(289.4M)
Change Receivables(4.7M)(5.0M)(3.2M)(20.7M)(18.6M)(17.7M)
Net Borrowings(43.9M)(47.8M)(50.7M)485.5M558.3M586.2M
Change To Netincome18.8M81.5M19.0M(199.7M)(179.8M)(170.8M)

First Merchants Greeks

Most traded equities are subject to two types of risk - systematic (i.e., market) and unsystematic (i.e., nonmarket or company-specific) risk. Unsystematic risk is the risk that events specific to First Merchants or Banks sector will adversely affect the stock's price. This type of risk can be diversified away by owning several different stocks in different industries whose stock prices have shown a small correlation to each other. On the other hand, systematic risk is the risk that First Merchants' price will be affected by overall stock market movements and cannot be diversified away. So, no matter how many positions you have, you cannot eliminate market risk. However, you can measure a First stock's historical response to market movements and buy it if you are comfortable with its volatility direction. Beta and standard deviation are two commonly used measures to help you make the right decision.
α
Alpha over Dow Jones
-0.01
β
Beta against Dow Jones2.41
σ
Overall volatility
2.62
Ir
Information ratio 0.06

First Merchants Volatility Alert

First Merchants has relatively low volatility with skewness of 3.37 and kurtosis of 19.96. Understanding different market volatility trends often help investors to time the market. Properly using volatility indicators enable traders to measure First Merchants' stock risk against market volatility during both bullish and bearish trends. The higher level of volatility that comes with bear markets can directly impact First Merchants' stock price while adding stress to investors as they watch their shares' value plummet. This usually forces investors to rebalance their portfolios by buying different financial instruments as prices fall.

First Merchants Fundamentals Vs Peers

Comparing First Merchants' fundamentals to the average values of its peers is one of the most widely used and accepted methods of equity analyses. It helps to analyze First Merchants' direct or indirect competition across all of the common fundamentals between First Merchants and the related equities. This way, we can detect undervalued stocks with similar characteristics as First Merchants or determine the stocks which would be an excellent addition to an existing portfolio. Peer analysis of First Merchants' fundamental indicators could also be used in its relative valuation, which is a method of valuing First Merchants by comparing valuation metrics with those of similar companies.
    
 Better Than Average     
    
 Worse Than Average Compare First Merchants to competition
FundamentalsFirst MerchantsPeer Average
Return On Equity0.0817-0.31
Return On Asset0.0099-0.14
Profit Margin0.30 %(1.27) %
Operating Margin0.42 %(5.51) %
Current Valuation3.25 B16.62 B
Shares Outstanding58.67 M571.82 M
Shares Owned By Insiders1.56 %10.09 %
Shares Owned By Institutions75.51 %39.21 %
Number Of Shares Shorted469.91 K4.71 M
Price To Earning14.38 X28.72 X
Price To Book1.13 X9.51 X
Price To Sales4.45 X11.42 X
Revenue654.31 M9.43 B
Gross Profit611.39 M27.38 B
EBITDA270.94 M3.9 B
Net Income223.79 M570.98 M
Cash And Equivalents299.12 M2.7 B
Cash Per Share5.06 X5.01 X
Total Debt871.5 M5.32 B
Debt To Equity6.95 %48.70 %
Book Value Per Share39.18 X1.93 K
Cash Flow From Operations258.83 M971.22 M
Short Ratio1.74 X4.00 X
Earnings Per Share3.01 X3.12 X
Price To Earnings To Growth2.68 X4.89 X
Target Price44.0
Number Of Employees2.16 K18.84 K
Beta1.02-0.15
Market Capitalization2.64 B19.03 B
Total Asset18.41 B29.47 B
Retained Earnings1.15 B9.33 B
Annual Yield0.03 %
Five Year Return2.58 %
Note: Acquisition by Wojtowicz Jean L of 840 shares of First Merchants at 37.2 subject to Rule 16b-3 [view details]

First Merchants Market Momentum

Traders often use several daily momentume indicators to supplement a more traditional technical analysis when analyzing securities such as First . With many different options, investors must choose the best indicators for them and familiarize themselves with how they work. We suggest combining traditional momentum indicators with more near-term forms of technical analysis such as Accumulation Distribution or Daily Balance Of Power. With their quantitative nature, daily value technical indicators can also be incorporated into your automated trading systems.

About First Merchants Buy or Sell Advice

When is the right time to buy or sell First Merchants? Buying financial instruments such as First Stock isn't very hard. However, what challenging for most investors is doing it at the right time to beat the market. Proper market timing is something most people cannot do without sophisticated tools, which help to isolate the right opportunities. Macroaxis provides hands-on modules to deliver winning trades and diversify your portfolios on a daily basis. Most of our advising modules are very easy to use and apply.
Please read more on our stock advisor page.

Use Investing Ideas to Build Portfolios

In addition to having First Merchants in your portfolios, you can quickly add positions using our predefined set of ideas and optimize them against your very unique investing style. A single investing idea is a collection of funds, stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies that are programmatically selected from a pull of investment themes. After you determine your investment opportunity, you can then find an optimal portfolio that will maximize potential returns on the chosen idea or minimize its exposure to market volatility.

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Furniture
Furniture Theme
Companies producing and selling home and office furniture. The Furniture theme has 42 constituents at this time.
You can either use a buy-and-hold strategy to lock in the entire theme or actively trade it to take advantage of the short-term price volatility of individual constituents. Macroaxis can help you discover thousands of investment opportunities in different asset classes. In addition, you can partner with us for reliable portfolio optimization as you plan to utilize Furniture Theme or any other thematic opportunities.
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When determining whether First Merchants is a good investment, qualitative aspects like company management, corporate governance, and ethical practices play a significant role. A comparison with peer companies also provides context and helps to understand if First Stock is undervalued or overvalued. This multi-faceted approach, blending both quantitative and qualitative analysis, forms a solid foundation for making an informed investment decision about First Merchants Stock. Highlighted below are key reports to facilitate an investment decision about First Merchants Stock:
Check out First Merchants Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool.
For information on how to trade First Stock refer to our How to Trade First Stock guide.
You can also try the Content Syndication module to quickly integrate customizable finance content to your own investment portal.
Is Regional Banks space expected to grow? Or is there an opportunity to expand the business' product line in the future? Factors like these will boost the valuation of First Merchants. If investors know First will grow in the future, the company's valuation will be higher. The financial industry is built on trying to define current growth potential and future valuation accurately. All the valuation information about First Merchants listed above have to be considered, but the key to understanding future value is determining which factors weigh more heavily than others.
Quarterly Earnings Growth
(0.11)
Dividend Share
1.38
Earnings Share
3.01
Revenue Per Share
10.11
Quarterly Revenue Growth
(0.05)
The market value of First Merchants is measured differently than its book value, which is the value of First that is recorded on the company's balance sheet. Investors also form their own opinion of First Merchants' value that differs from its market value or its book value, called intrinsic value, which is First Merchants' true underlying value. Investors use various methods to calculate intrinsic value and buy a stock when its market value falls below its intrinsic value. Because First Merchants' market value can be influenced by many factors that don't directly affect First Merchants' underlying business (such as a pandemic or basic market pessimism), market value can vary widely from intrinsic value.
Please note, there is a significant difference between First Merchants' value and its price as these two are different measures arrived at by different means. Investors typically determine if First Merchants is a good investment by looking at such factors as earnings, sales, fundamental and technical indicators, competition as well as analyst projections. However, First Merchants' price is the amount at which it trades on the open market and represents the number that a seller and buyer find agreeable to each party.