First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Stephens

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Stephens in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $29.00 price target on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.47% from the company’s previous close.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

First Busey Stock Up 2.7 %

First Busey stock traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $24.07. The stock had a trading volume of 45,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 333,685. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 0.88. First Busey has a 1-year low of $21.59 and a 1-year high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. As a group, analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Busey

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stifel Financial Corp purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth about $757,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 valued at $12,549,000 after acquiring an additional 39,900 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of First Busey by 168.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,884,000 after purchasing an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of First Busey by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after purchasing an additional 22,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of First Busey by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 15,829 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

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.