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First Merchants

FRME on Nasdaq. First Merchants Corporation sells banking services to people and businesses in three states. Market value $2.5bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

Nothing stood out in the numbers we check.

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Return on equity
five annual reports to December 2025
10.5%five-year median

Yearly profit per dollar of owners' money: 10 cents. Above 10 is good.

Price to book
quarterly report to June 2026
0.9×

What you pay for each dollar of net assets: $0.92.

Earnings yield
past 12 months to June 2026
7.5%

Profit per $100 you pay: $7.46.

Quality score: 83 of 100. Price score: 96 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$39.67 a share, 14% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $34.66 to $45.33.

Dividend: 3.3% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
20212022202320242025
Revenue
n/an/an/an/an/a
Operating margin
n/an/an/an/an/a
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn0.06bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positiveDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Accounting checksDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • DebtDoesn't apply to banks and insurers
  • Revenue growth, five yearsUnknown
  • Buying back its own sharesNo, 6% more shares since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Profit: $44 million, down 23% on a year ago.
  • 8% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$49m
December 2024$64m
March 2025$55m
June 2025$57m
September 2025$57m
December 2025$57m
March 2026$28m
June 2026$44m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
25 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
30 October 2026

Who owns it

3 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 3 last quarter. 307 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

3 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 3 sold $2m.

  • FLUHLER STEPHAN
    Chief Information Officer
    Sold
    Date
    19 August 2026
    Shares
    4,080
    Price
    $43.20
    Value
    $176,256
  • Myers Larry W
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    12 June 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $42.00
    Value
    $420,000
  • Myers Larry W
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    11 June 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $41.50
    Value
    $415,000
  • Myers Larry W
    First Vice President, Director
    Sold
    Date
    5 May 2026
    Shares
    0
    Price
    $40.54
    Value
    $17
  • Myers Larry W
    First Vice President, Director
    Sold
    Date
    26 February 2026
    Shares
    5,000
    Price
    $41.50
    Value
    $207,500
  • FLUHLER STEPHAN
    Chief Information Officer
    Sold
    Date
    11 February 2026
    Shares
    4,161
    Price
    $41.96
    Value
    $174,596
  • Scurlock Eva D.
    Chief Risk Officer
    Sold
    Date
    6 February 2026
    Shares
    3,227
    Price
    $42.29
    Value
    $136,470
  • FLUHLER STEPHAN
    Chief Information Officer
    Sold
    Date
    4 November 2025
    Shares
    5,689
    Price
    $35.55
    Value
    $202,244

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 25 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 31 Jul 2026 and 13 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • • The Corporation is subject to risks and challenges related to its development and use of artificial intelligence.

    Could happen
    The evolving legal, regulatory, and compliance framework for artificial intelligence, both in the U.S. and internationally, may impact our ability to protect our data and intellectual property against infringing use, require changes to our artificial intelligence implementation, and increase our compliance costs and the risk of non-compliance. Although the Corporation has established governance, risk management, and control frameworks intended to oversee the use of artificial intelligence, these frameworks may not identify or mitigate all current or emerging risks associated with rapidly evolving technologies. Additionally, we may not be able to control how third-party artificial intelligence solutions we use are developed or maintained, including the source and quality of training data or the frequency and nature of model updates. We may also be unable to govern or protect the integrity of the data we input into such tools, specifically how that data is retained, reused, co-mingled with other data, or disclosed, even where we have sought protections with respect to these matters.
    Read more

  • • The Corporation is subject to risks and challenges related to its development and use of artificial intelligence.

    Could happen
    The Corporation and its third-party vendors, clients, counterparties, and other market participants use and develop artificial intelligence technologies, including machine-learning and generative artificial intelligence tools, and generative artificial intelligence models. This use may expose the Corporation to various risks and potential liabilities, including: enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny; litigation; ethical concerns; confidentiality and security risks; intellectual property concerns over data rights and protection; heightened susceptibility to, and increased frequency and severity of, cyberattacks; inaccurate or biased algorithms or underlying datasets; and misuse or misappropriation. These factors could adversely affect our business, reputation, and financial results. In addition, poor implementation of artificial intelligence by the Corporation or its third-party service providers could subject the Corporation to additional risks that we may not adequately predict or mitigate.
    Read more

  • • The Corporation is subject to risks and challenges related to its development and use of artificial intelligence.

    Could happen
    Failure to strategically embrace artificial intelligence or to achieve expected effectiveness, productivity, or cost reductions from artificial intelligence adoption may result in a competitive disadvantage. We could experience a material adverse effect on our operating results, customer relationships, and growth opportunities if: we cannot offer new artificial intelligence-facilitated technologies as quickly as our competitors; our competitors develop more cost-effective solutions or product offerings; our employees do not adopt such technologies expediently; or we are unable to source necessary components, including reliable third-party technology solutions and service providers. The use of artificial intelligence solutions may also introduce operational and control risks, including potential errors in outputs, challenges in oversight and accountability, increased vulnerability to system failures or cyber incidents, and the risk that these technologies may not perform as intended under complex or unforeseen circumstances. These risks could materially disrupt our business operations and adversely affect our financial condition and reputation.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.