Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Boosts First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Price Target to $34.00

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) had its target price upped by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $32.00 to $34.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the bank’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 26.07% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BUSE. StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stephens downgraded shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Busey presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.25.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BUSE opened at $26.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of 13.90 and a beta of 0.86. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $25.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.26. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $21.68 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. State Street Corp raised its holdings in First Busey by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,367 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after purchasing an additional 22,096 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in First Busey by 20.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $22,937,000 after purchasing an additional 163,042 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in First Busey by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,069,000 after buying an additional 8,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 411,749 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,968,000 after buying an additional 6,658 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.