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

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $27.80.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BUSE. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the second quarter worth about $34,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 257.4% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the first quarter worth about $115,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the first quarter worth about $142,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 27.3% in the first quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 8,606 shares of the bank’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,848 shares during the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Busey Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $26.03 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. First Busey has a 1 year low of $17.51 and a 1 year high of $28.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.52. The company has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.15 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released 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 company had revenue of $116.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.65 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. 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.