Regional banking company First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) will be announcing earnings results this Wednesday after market close. Here’s what you need to know.
First Merchants met analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $202.5 million, up 18.7% year on year. It was a softer quarter for the company, with a significant miss of analysts’ net interest income and EPS estimates.
Is First Merchants a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, the market is expecting First Merchants’s revenue to grow 18.3% year on year, improving from its flat revenue in the same quarter last year.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business will stay the course heading into earnings. First Merchants has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates multiple times over the last two years.
Looking at First Merchants’s peers in the regional banks segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Washington Trust Bancorp delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 15%, beating analysts’ expectations by 4.1%, and Independent Bank reported revenues up 7.4%, topping estimates by 0.6%. Independent Bank traded up 3.6% following the results.
Read our full analysis of Washington Trust Bancorp’s results here and Independent Bank’s results here.
Over the last year or so, investors' attention has moved from one major market theme to the next, spanning AI disruption and surging infrastructure investment to geopolitical tensions, interest rates, and the health of the broader economy. While some of the regional banks stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 5.7% on average over the last month. First Merchants is down 3.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $46.50 (compared to the current share price of $39.39).
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