First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Receives $27.80 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $27.80.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BUSE shares. StockNews.com upgraded 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 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 report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Stephens downgraded 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 report on Monday, October 14th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Busey

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the second quarter worth $34,000. Huntington National Bank purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth $43,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the first quarter worth $115,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BUSE opened at $26.47 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $25.64 and a 200 day moving average of $24.97. 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 capitalization of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.84. First Busey has a 12-month low of $20.67 and a 12-month high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

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

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.