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

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $28.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

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

First Busey Stock Performance

BUSE stock opened at $22.80 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.52 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.64. First Busey has a 52 week low of $16.26 and a 52 week high of $25.80.

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

First Busey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other First Busey news, Director Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 139,804 shares in the company, valued at $3,126,017.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 139,804 shares in the company, valued at $3,126,017.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Karen M. Jensen acquired 2,000 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $22.98 per share, with a total value of $45,960.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 47,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,093,503.30. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 4,817 shares of company stock worth $114,780 and sold 6,900 shares worth $157,182. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,278,444 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,372,000 after buying an additional 55,224 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in First Busey by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,886,341 shares of the bank’s stock worth $55,475,000 after acquiring an additional 26,829 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in First Busey by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,552,667 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,537,000 after acquiring an additional 57,392 shares during the period. Plancorp LLC increased its position in First Busey by 742.9% during the third quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 1,320,225 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,375,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163,596 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in First Busey by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 636,619 shares of the bank’s stock worth $15,801,000 after acquiring an additional 31,442 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.