DA Davidson Weighs in on First Busey FY2026 Earnings

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) – Equities researchers at DA Davidson issued their FY2026 earnings estimates for First Busey in a report issued on Wednesday, February 26th. DA Davidson analyst J. Rulis forecasts that the bank will post earnings per share of $2.90 for the year. DA Davidson currently has a “Neutral” rating and a $25.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for First Busey’s current full-year earnings is $2.61 per share.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on BUSE. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.00.

First Busey Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ BUSE opened at $23.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.18 and a beta of 0.87. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $21.59 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.23. 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 (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This is a boost from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.76%.

Insider Activity

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,838 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $23.75 per share, with a total value of $43,652.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 437,481 shares in the company, valued at $10,390,173.75. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 45.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 55,090 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,433,000 after acquiring an additional 17,248 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in First Busey by 211.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 100,952 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,627,000 after purchasing an additional 68,585 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank bought a new stake in First Busey in the third quarter worth $38,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in First Busey by 5.4% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 191,934 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,994,000 after buying an additional 9,782 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 145.4% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 28,954 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $754,000 after buying an additional 17,155 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

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.