State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Reduces Stock Position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D decreased its holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 10.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,185 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 10,707 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned about 0.16% of First Busey worth $2,347,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BUSE. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in First Busey by 22.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,159,907 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,895,000 after buying an additional 212,782 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 28.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 386,231 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,351,000 after acquiring an additional 86,492 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 211.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 100,952 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,627,000 after purchasing an additional 68,585 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter valued at approximately $540,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BUSE has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Stephens cut shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, First Busey has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $26.83 on Thursday. First Busey Co. has a one year low of $20.67 and a one year high of $28.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of 13.83 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.89.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. First Busey’s payout ratio is 49.48%.

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.