Stephens Downgrades First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) to Equal Weight

Stephens cut shares of First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $27.00 price target on the bank’s stock, down from their previous price target of $28.00.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on BUSE. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Busey presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $26.25 on Monday. First Busey has a 1-year low of $17.51 and a 1-year high of $28.97. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.26 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $116.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.65 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.66%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.48%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Busey

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 87,257 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in First Busey by 8.8% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 15,889 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $413,000 after buying an additional 1,286 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the second quarter valued at $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 valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,866 shares of the bank’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.