First Busey Co. (BUSE) To Go Ex-Dividend on October 18th

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 8th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the bank on Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th.

First Busey has increased its dividend by an average of 2.9% annually over the last three years. First Busey has a dividend payout ratio of 41.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect First Busey to earn $2.57 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 37.4%.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $25.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.71 and a beta of 0.84. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $25.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.51. First Busey has a twelve month low of $17.51 and a twelve month high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $116.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.65 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on BUSE. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stephens cut First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.80.

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.