First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.25 Per Share

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

First Busey has raised its dividend by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. First Busey has a dividend payout ratio of 33.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect First Busey to earn $2.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.9%.

First Busey Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of First Busey stock traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $22.86. The company had a trading volume of 304,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 294,823. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $25.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.60. First Busey has a fifty-two week low of $21.59 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 billion, a PE ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.88. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The company had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BUSE shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens downgraded First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th.

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.