First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The bank reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01, Zacks reports. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%.

First Busey Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of First Busey stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $23.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 593,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 351,792. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.56. The company has a market capitalization of $1.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 0.88. First Busey has a one year low of $21.59 and a one year high of $28.97.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.26%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on BUSE shares. Stephens downgraded shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

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.