Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reiterates Outperform Rating for First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE)

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reiterated by equities researchers at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $33.00 target price on the bank's stock, down from their prior target price of $34.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods' price objective indicates a potential upside of 38.92% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms have also commented on BUSE. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $29.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $28.75.

First Busey Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of BUSE stock traded down $0.53 on Thursday, hitting $23.76. The company's stock had a trading volume of 157,879 shares, compared to its average volume of 344,522. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 0.87. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $21.59 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $24.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. Research analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.58 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. State Street Corp grew its position in First Busey by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank's stock worth $38,952,000 after buying an additional 6,367 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in First Busey by 1.7% in the third 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 during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in First Busey by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank's stock worth $18,069,000 after buying an additional 8,083 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in First Busey by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank's stock valued at $12,549,000 after buying an additional 39,900 shares during the period. Finally, Peregrine Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey in the 4th quarter valued at $5,498,000. 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.