First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) Receives $27.33 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $27.3333.

A number of research firms have recently commented on BUSE. Hovde Group began coverage on shares of First Busey in a report on Monday, June 30th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson upped their price objective on First Busey from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (up previously from $27.00) on shares of First Busey in a research note on Friday, August 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Scott A. Phillips bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.25 per share, with a total value of $25,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 1,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,250. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Karen M. Jensen acquired 3,000 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $24.60 per share, with a total value of $73,800.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 86,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,135,230.80. This trade represents a 3.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 72.9% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 29,240 shares of the bank’s stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 12,330 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS grew its position in shares of First Busey by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 19,006 shares of the bank’s stock worth $440,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 56.2% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 17,307 shares of the bank’s stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 6,224 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 19,636 shares of the bank’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 2,723 shares during the period. Finally, Acropolis Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth $580,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Trading Down 0.5%

BUSE stock opened at $23.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.84. First Busey has a 52 week low of $18.40 and a 52 week high of $28.30. The company has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 20.70 and a beta of 0.77.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 20th. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. First Busey had a net margin of 9.48% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The business had revenue of $63.34 million during the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 24th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 24th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 89.29%.

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.