First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Given Equal Weight Rating at Stephens

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

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

First Busey Price Performance

NASDAQ BUSE traded up $0.62 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $24.07. The stock had a trading volume of 45,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 333,685. First Busey has a 52-week low of $21.59 and a 52-week high of $28.97. The company has a market cap of $1.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 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%. Equities analysts forecast that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Busey

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in First Busey by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,367 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in First Busey by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,723,000 after purchasing an additional 22,096 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in First Busey by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,069,000 after purchasing an additional 8,083 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 39,900 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in First Busey by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 201,745 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,755,000 after purchasing an additional 9,811 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.