First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 10th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th.

First Busey has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.8% per year over the last three years. First Busey has a dividend payout ratio of 35.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect First Busey to earn $2.82 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 35.5%.

First Busey Price Performance

First Busey stock opened at $19.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.17. First Busey has a 52 week low of $18.40 and a 52 week high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. On average, research analysts forecast that First Busey will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,462,503.10. This trade represents a 0.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BUSE. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price objective (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James dropped their target price on First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced 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, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, First Busey currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.80.

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.