First Busey’s (BUSE) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) in a report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $31.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on BUSE. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday, July 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Busey presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $28.60.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of BUSE opened at $26.90 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $25.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.88. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.59 and a beta of 0.85. First Busey has a 12-month low of $17.51 and a 12-month high of $28.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.01. The firm 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 9.26% and a net margin of 17.18%. As a group, research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.57%. First Busey’s payout ratio is 48.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Van A. Dukeman sold 16,539 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total transaction of $389,328.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 386,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,092,960.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Van A. Dukeman sold 16,539 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total transaction of $389,328.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 386,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,092,960.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP John Joseph Powers sold 6,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total transaction of $143,358.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 89,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,107,088.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have purchased 264 shares of company stock valued at $5,319 and have sold 22,790 shares valued at $536,477. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BUSE. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in First Busey by 257.4% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in First Busey in the first quarter valued at approximately $115,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in First Busey in the first quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 27.3% during the first quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 8,606 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,848 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.