First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Stephens

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

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of First Busey from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $25.75.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of BUSE opened at $23.12 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.68 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.64. First Busey has a 1 year low of $16.26 and a 1 year high of $25.80.

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

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Karen M. Jensen purchased 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.40 per share, with a total value of $61,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 45,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,112,274. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Karen M. Jensen purchased 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.40 per share, with a total value of $61,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 45,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,112,274. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.36, for a total transaction of $51,428.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 139,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,126,017.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 4,917 shares of company stock valued at $117,215 and sold 6,900 shares valued at $157,182. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Busey

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Plancorp LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 742.9% in the 3rd quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 1,320,225 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,375,000 after acquiring an additional 1,163,596 shares during the period. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the 4th quarter valued at $11,053,000. Cozad Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 565.7% in the 4th quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 402,097 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,980,000 after acquiring an additional 341,692 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 523,703 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,066,000 after acquiring an additional 66,588 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,552,667 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,537,000 after acquiring an additional 57,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

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.