First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04, Yahoo Finance reports. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share.

First Busey Trading Down 0.6 %

First Busey stock traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $24.55. 372,660 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 222,743. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $17.51 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.59.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.48%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on BUSE. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Stephens cut 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.80.

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.