First Busey’s (BUSE) “Equal Weight” Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their equal weight rating on shares of First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $26.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on BUSE. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.80.

First Busey Price Performance

NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $20.67 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 10.49 and a beta of 0.75. First Busey has a 12 month low of $18.40 and a 12 month high of $28.97. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $21.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.80.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $140.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.15 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.84%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,838 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $23.75 per share, for a total transaction of $43,652.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 437,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,390,173.75. This represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 671,402 shares of the bank’s stock worth $15,825,000 after acquiring an additional 189,115 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter valued at about $757,000. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 111,799 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,635,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of First Busey by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after buying an additional 22,096 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 61.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 15,829 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.