First Busey’s (BUSE) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $28.00 target price on the bank’s stock.

Separately, StockNews.com cut First Busey from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $25.75.

First Busey Stock Down 1.3 %

BUSE stock opened at $22.80 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 0.85. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $23.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.64. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $16.26 and a fifty-two week high of $25.80.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.49% and a net margin of 18.08%. The firm had revenue of $108.65 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $107.74 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th were given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 18th. First Busey’s payout ratio is currently 48.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other First Busey news, Director Karen M. Jensen bought 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $24.40 per share, for a total transaction of $61,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 45,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,112,274. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other First Busey news, Director Karen M. Jensen bought 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $24.40 per share, for a total transaction of $61,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 45,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,112,274. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.36, for a total value of $51,428.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 139,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,126,017.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 4,817 shares of company stock worth $114,780 and have sold 6,900 shares worth $157,182. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BUSE. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,278,444 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,224 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,886,341 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $55,475,000 after purchasing an additional 26,829 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,552,667 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,537,000 after purchasing an additional 57,392 shares in the last quarter. Plancorp LLC boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 742.9% during the third quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 1,320,225 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,163,596 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 636,619 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,801,000 after purchasing an additional 31,442 shares in 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.