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

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $27.80.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Stephens cut shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of First Busey by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,952,000 after acquiring an additional 6,367 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in First Busey by 22.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,159,907 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,895,000 after purchasing an additional 212,782 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 20.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $22,937,000 after buying an additional 163,042 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,069,000 after buying an additional 8,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of First Busey by 1.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 411,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,658 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Busey Trading Down 0.9 %

BUSE opened at $26.47 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $20.67 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $25.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.93. 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 (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.