Since July 2025, First Busey has been in a holding pattern, posting a small loss of 2.9% while floating around $23.71. The stock also fell short of the S&P 500’s 11.3% gain during that period.

Is now the time to buy First Busey, or should you be careful about including it in your portfolio? Get the full breakdown from our expert analysts, it’s free.

Why Is First Busey Not Exciting?

We're swiping left on First Busey for now. Here are three reasons there are better opportunities than BUSE and a stock we'd rather own.

1. Low Net Interest Margin Reveals Weak Loan Book Profitability

Net interest margin (NIM) represents the unit economics of a bank by measuring the profitability of its interest-bearing assets relative to its interest-bearing liabilities. It's a fundamental metric that investors use to assess lending premiums and returns.

Over the past two years, we can see that First Busey’s net interest margin averaged a subpar 3.2%, indicating the company has weak loan book economics.

2. EPS Barely Growing

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) because it highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

First Busey’s EPS grew at a weak 4.2% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, lower than its 10.1% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

3. TBVPS Projections Show Stormy Skies Ahead

A bank’s tangible book value per share (TBVPS) increases when it generates higher net interest margins and keeps credit losses low, allowing it to compound shareholder value over time.

Over the next 12 months, Consensus estimates call for First Busey’s TBVPS to shrink by 4.6% to $21.09, a sour projection.

Final Judgment

First Busey isn’t a terrible business, but it isn’t one of our picks. With its shares underperforming the market lately, the stock trades at 0.9× forward P/B (or $23.71 per share). This valuation is reasonable, but the company’s shakier fundamentals present too much downside risk. We're pretty confident there are more exciting stocks to buy at the moment. We’d suggest looking at the Amazon and PayPal of Latin America.

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