First Busey combines post-merger earnings recovery, sticky fee franchises, and a 3.56% yield for attractive long-term upside despite CRE and deposit-cost risks.
Overview
First Busey is an $18.10 billion regional financial holding company with 79 banking centers across ten states, combining traditional spread banking with wealth management and proprietary payment technology. Deposits fund commercial, residential real estate, HELOC, and consumer lending, while wealth management held $15.66 billion of assets under care and FirsTech supplies embedded payment, ACH, lockbox, and merchant solutions. **The central earnings story is post-CrossFirst integration:** Q1 2026 adjusted EPS rose 17.5% year over year to $0.67, beating the $0.58 consensus by 15.52%, as NIM expanded to 3.77% and the adjusted efficiency ratio improved to 54.8%. GAAP net income recovered to $49.98 million from a $29.99 million loss in Q1 2025, although Q1 included a $9.0 million pre-tax severance charge. Revenue of $193.18 million missed consensus by 2.01%. NPAs fell to 0.28%, CET1 reached 12.31%, and the company repurchased $65.6 million of shares while paying a $0.26 quarterly dividend. At 13.05x trailing P/E and a 3.56% dividend yield, valuation appears reasonable versus a historical 6.87x-21.34x range. Near-term catalysts are continued CrossFirst synergies, Q2 earnings, ClearPoint completion, and fee growth; major risks are CRE concentration, deposit costs, and regulatory scale.