First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Price Target Lowered to $27.00 at Raymond James

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) had its target price lowered by Raymond James from $29.00 to $27.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on BUSE. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $21.72 on Wednesday. First Busey has a twelve month low of $21.05 and a twelve month high of $28.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.29 and a 200-day moving average of $24.55.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. As a group, analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. First Busey’s payout ratio is 50.76%.

Insider Transactions at First Busey

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw bought 1,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were bought at an average price of $23.75 per share, for a total transaction of $43,652.50. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 437,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,390,173.75. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,500,343 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $82,503,000 after acquiring an additional 110,895 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in First Busey by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,367 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after purchasing an additional 22,096 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,122,896 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $26,467,000 after buying an additional 58,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,323 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,672,000 after buying an additional 12,879 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About First Busey

First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking products and services to individual, corporate, institutional, and governmental customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and FirsTech.