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

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid 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 of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

First Busey has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. First Busey has a dividend payout ratio of 33.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Performance

First Busey stock traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $22.86. 224,773 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 278,069. 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 has a 12 month low of $21.59 and a 12 month high of $28.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50 day moving average of $25.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.60.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BUSE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Stephens lowered shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

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.