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

Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.80.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 257.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 1,439 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey during the 1st quarter valued at about $115,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey during the 1st quarter valued at about $142,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 27.3% during the 1st quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 8,606 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 1,848 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $26.03 on Thursday. First Busey has a 1-year low of $17.51 and a 1-year high of $28.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $25.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.52. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a PE ratio of 13.15 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. The firm had revenue of $116.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.65 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.69%. First Busey’s payout ratio is 48.48%.

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.