Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reaffirms Outperform Rating for First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE)

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $33.00 price objective on the bank’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $34.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 35.91% from the company’s current price.

BUSE has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, First Busey has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.75.

First Busey Price Performance

First Busey stock opened at $24.28 on Thursday. 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 50-day simple moving average is $24.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.51. First Busey has a 52 week low of $21.59 and a 52 week high of $28.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 12.32 and a beta of 0.88.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. On average, equities research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in First Busey during the third quarter worth about $757,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in First Busey by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,549,000 after purchasing an additional 39,900 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in First Busey by 168.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,884,000 after buying an additional 93,733 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in First Busey by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,723,000 after buying an additional 22,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in First Busey by 61.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 15,829 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.