Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Increases First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) Price Target to $34.00

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the bank’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 26.63% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on BUSE. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stephens lowered shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, First Busey currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.25.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BUSE traded up $0.08 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $26.85. The company had a trading volume of 79,302 shares, compared to its average volume of 227,189. The company has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.77 and a beta of 0.86. First Busey has a 52 week low of $21.68 and a 52 week high of $28.97. The business’s 50-day moving average is $25.74 and its 200 day moving average is $25.23. 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 (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.32 million. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in First Busey by 20.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank’s stock worth $22,937,000 after acquiring an additional 163,042 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in First Busey by 168.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,884,000 after acquiring an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in First Busey by 28.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 386,231 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,351,000 after acquiring an additional 86,492 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in First Busey by 211.9% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 100,952 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,627,000 after acquiring an additional 68,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in First Busey by 81.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,516,000 after acquiring an additional 60,506 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

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.