QualityDipStocks / Finance · Major Banks
First Merchants FRME
Outside our quality screen, so we don’t track its dips. It’s 9% below its 52-week high.
Outside our quality screen, trading near our fair value estimate.
- Fair value est.
- $41.17at the price
- Market Value
- $40.93price +1%
- Off 52-wk high
- −9%
- Risk vs market
- Lowbeta 0.48
4 bullish · 4 bearish See why
Repriced or dip?
Near its high
The price is 9% below its 52-week high (Jul 16), but the business held up: revenue +9.8%, revenue growth rate +7.5 pts.
Some numbers held up (revenue +9.8%, revenue growth rate +7.5 pts), others slipped. The price is 9% below its 52-week high.
The price is 9% below its 52-week high, and the business changed too.
Within 10% of its 52-week high, so there is no dip to judge yet.
Data-based read, not advice.
Priced in
How much growth the market assumed at the 52-week high, the low and today (a reverse DCF).
52-wk high: P/E 14.0×; 52-wk low: P/E 8.7×; now: P/E 13.3×.
| High | Low | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $45.23Jul 16 | $34.99Nov 17 | $41.36 |
| P/E | 14.0× | 8.7× | 13.3× |
What this means: a lower P/E than at the high means you pay less for each dollar of profit than buyers did then.
How it’s computed
Banks, insurers and lenders: cash flow includes deposits and loans, so a cash-flow model doesn't fit; we show P/E at each point instead. P/E = that day's close × diluted shares / 12-month net income, using only the filings that were public on that day.
Valuation
What we estimate it's worth, and how it ranks on value vs every stock we cover.
Fair value estimate
How the range is computed
Financials model (residual income). Same residual-income model as the base: cost of equity 9.5% ±1 point and return on equity 8.4% ±2 points. Bear = 10.5% and 6.4%; bull = 8.5% and 10.4%. A model estimate from public filings, not a forecast of where the price will go.
Price sits inside the range.
What the price implies To be worth today’s price, FRME would need a return on equity of about 8% a year; our estimate uses 8%.
Risk vs market
How risk vs market is measured
One year of daily returns (Oct 31 to Nov 2, 252 sessions). Beta = how much FRME moved for each 1% move in the S&P 500 (SPY); 1.0 moves with the market. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns. Past behavior, not a forecast.
Moves much less than the market, but its own price swings are 1.7× the S&P 500’s (it moves on its own news).
- Beta vs S&P 500
- 0.48
- Volatility
- 22% vs 13% SPY
- Correlation SPY
- 0.28
- Correlation QQQ
- 0.10
How it ranks
Where FRME stands vs every one of the 1,996 stocks we cover that has the number. Longer bar = better.
Top quarter on 1 of 3 measures
- Discount to fair value estimate0% · price above our base caseTop 45%of 1,314
- Dividends + buybacks yield5.8% · cash paid out or used to retire shares, vs market capTop 21%of 1,836
- Revenue growth, last 12 months+8.5% · vs the 12 months beforeLowest 45%of 1,814
From SEC filings and our fair value estimate model. A ranking, not advice.
Valuation details
DCF $41.17 · MV $40.93
Financials model (residual income): book value $45.70 a share on Sep 30, 2026, plus the earnings above a 9.5% cost of equity. ROE 8.4%, the average of 7.2% for the trailing 12 months to Sep 30, 2026 and 9.7% over fiscal 2021–2025, on average common equity; payout 73% of earnings (dividends 46% + net buybacks 27%), so book grows by the retained rest; the return above 9.5% fades halfway toward 9.5% over 10 years, then grows at 3% (terminal value). From the 10-Q filed Oct 30, 2026.
Fundamentals
The business itself: sales, profits, cash and debt, from SEC filings.
Bull vs bear
Rule-based from the data on this page, strongest first. Not advice.
Top bullish points 4 of 5
Cash returnsDividend yield of 3.5% ($90M paid over 12 months, 46% of earnings).
ValuationPrice / book of 1.0×, below the 1.7× median for the 296 Finance companies we cover.
GrowthSales grew 8% to $724M over the last 12 months vs the 12 months before (SEC filings).
ProfitabilityNet margin of 27%, above the 22% median for the 281 Finance companies we cover.
Top bearish points 4 of 5
Cash returnsShare count up 8.6% in a year: existing holders are being diluted.
ProfitabilityReturn on equity is only 8% over the last 12 months.
GrowthSales grew 1.8% a year over the last three fiscal years, below the 9.2% median for the 286 Finance companies we cover.
QualityDoesn’t pass our quality screen: ROE under 12% and ROIC under 10%.
All fundamentals
P/E 13.3 · ROE 8% · Sales +8%
Valuation
- P/E
- 13.3×Finance median 13.6×
- Price / FCF
- n/acash flow isn't a clean measure for a bank
- FCF yield
- n/acash flow isn't a clean measure for a bank
- EV / EBITDA
- n/anot meaningful for a bank
- Price / sales
- 3.58×
- Price / book
- 0.98×
- Market cap
- $2.6Bprice × diluted shares
- Enterprise value
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
Growth
- Revenue, 12 months
- $724Mnet interest income + noninterest income
- Sales growth, 12 months
- +8.5%vs the 12 months before
- Sales growth, 3 yrs
- +1.8%/yrfrom FY2022
- Diluted EPS, 12 months
- $3.22
- EPS growth, last FY
- +13.8%
- Net income, 12 months
- $196M
- Net income growth
- −15%12 months vs before
Profitability
- Gross margin
- n/anot meaningful for a bank
- Operating margin
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Net margin
- 27.0%
- FCF margin
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Return on equity
- 8%
- Return on invested capital
- n/anot meaningful for a bank
Balance sheet
- Cash & short-term inv.
- $87M
- Total debt
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Net cash
- n/anot meaningful for a bank
- Debt / equity
- n/adeposits/float make debt/equity not comparable for a bank
- Interest coverage
- n/anot meaningful for a bank
Cash flow & returns
- Free cash flow, 12 months
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- FCF growth, 12 months
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Dividend yield
- 3.48%$90M paid
- Payout ratio
- 46%
- Buybacks, 12 months
- $61M2.3% of market cap
- Share count, 1 year
- +8.6%diluted shares vs a year ago
- Stock-based comp
- $8M
Trailing 12 months to Sep 30, 2026; balance sheet at Sep 30, 2026. From First Merchants’s SEC filings. Sparklines show up to six fiscal years. n/a means we don’t hold that number, with the reason. How each is computed.
The business
Sales +21%
- Return on equity8%
- Sales growth (latest quarter vs year-ago quarter)+21%
Chart & levels
Where the price is vs its key levels and trends.
Key levels
Every level vs today’s $41.36
- 52-wk lowlowest close, 1 year$34.99−15.4%
- Market Valueavg paid since Oct 21$40.93−1.0%
- Fair value est.base case$41.17−0.5%
- PriceMon Nov 2 close$41.36you are here
- 52-wk highhighest close, 1 year$45.23+9.4%
Momentum & 52-week range
RSI 59 · 5 days +0.7%
Signals
Reversal signal setups, the public ledger and the next earnings date.
Setup & signals
No setup armed
No setup armed, so there’s no trigger or stop to track yet. Reversal signal rules only run on companies that pass our quality screen.
FRME is outside our quality screen
One text when a published rule fires on one of the 332 quality companies we track: the ticker, the price, the stop and a link to the numbers. Nothing else.
Voices & buzz
Who is talking about it, and how it compares with peers.
Who’s talking about it
Notable investors, executives, analysts and public figures on First Merchants in the last 48 hours. Headlines as published, each linked. Their words, not ours.
No notable mentions in the last 48 hours. Checked Nov 3, 1:01 PM ET.
Compare with peers
Closest in size in Major Banks
Information only, not investment advice. Fair value estimates and talking points are rule-based model output from public data and can be wrong; stop levels are reference points, not orders. How every number is computed.