First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Raises Dividend to $0.25 Per Share

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

First Busey has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. First Busey has a dividend payout ratio of 33.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect First Busey to earn $2.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.9%.

First Busey Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BUSE traded down $0.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $22.86. The stock had a trading volume of 224,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 278,069. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a PE ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $25.33 and its 200 day moving average is $25.60. First Busey has a 12 month low of $21.59 and a 12 month high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The business had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens downgraded First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th.

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.