Empowered Funds LLC Grows Stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 5.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 191,934 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,782 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in First Busey were worth $4,994,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BUSE. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of First Busey by 22.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,159,907 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,895,000 after buying an additional 212,782 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in First Busey by 20.8% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $22,937,000 after acquiring an additional 163,042 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in First Busey by 28.9% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 386,231 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,351,000 after purchasing 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% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at about $540,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BUSE. StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Stephens downgraded First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of BUSE stock opened at $26.47 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a PE ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.97. First Busey Co. has a 1 year low of $20.67 and a 1 year high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. Research analysts predict that First Busey Co. will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.