Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 54,909 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,294,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stifel Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey during the 3rd quarter worth $757,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in First Busey by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,549,000 after buying an additional 39,900 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of First Busey by 168.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,884,000 after acquiring an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,723,000 after acquiring an additional 22,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of First Busey by 61.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 15,829 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Stock Up 2.5 %

BUSE stock opened at $22.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.21 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $23.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.96. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $21.20 and a 12 month high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. Sell-side analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.53%. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. First Busey’s payout ratio is presently 50.76%.

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.