First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $27.80.

BUSE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in First Busey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Huntington National Bank bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth approximately $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth approximately $43,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 257.4% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the first quarter worth approximately $115,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

First Busey Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $26.47 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $25.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.97. First Busey has a 12 month low of $20.67 and a 12 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 stock has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The firm had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.32 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. Equities analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

First Busey Company Profile

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.