First Busey's (BUSE) "Equal Weight" Rating Reiterated at Stephens

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "equal weight" rating reaffirmed by Stephens in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $29.00 price objective on the bank's stock. Stephens' price objective would suggest a potential upside of 18.85% from the company's previous close.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $28.75.

First Busey Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of BUSE stock traded up $0.51 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $24.40. The company had a trading volume of 322,870 shares, compared to its average volume of 354,204. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. First Busey has a twelve month low of $21.59 and a twelve month high of $28.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.58 and a beta of 0.88. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $24.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.53.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in First Busey during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Huntington National Bank bought a new position in First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $43,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $171,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Busey during the 3rd quarter worth $224,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.