First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,380,000 shares, a decrease of 54.6% from the February 28th total of 3,040,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 410,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 482,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Busey

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 20,427 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $532,000 after acquiring an additional 545 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its position in shares of First Busey by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 7,396 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $174,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 30,293 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $714,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of First Busey by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 111,799 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,635,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 161.1% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,697 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

First Busey Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of BUSE opened at $21.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.01 and a beta of 0.84. First Busey has a 12-month low of $21.21 and a 12-month high of $28.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.64.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. As a group, research analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.61%. First Busey’s payout ratio is 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.