Short Interest in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Rises By 9.9%

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the September 15th total of 974,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 305,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in First Busey by 5.7% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,359,080 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,686,000 after acquiring an additional 72,800 shares during the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 3,072.7% during the 1st quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 34,900 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $839,000 after buying an additional 33,800 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 22.5% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in First Busey by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 17,013 shares of the bank’s stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 2,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,552,667 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,537,000 after purchasing an additional 57,392 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Price Performance

NASDAQ BUSE traded up $0.87 on Wednesday, hitting $26.03. The stock had a trading volume of 404,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 217,952. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.89 and a 200-day moving average of $24.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. First Busey has a 52-week low of $17.51 and a 52-week high of $28.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.15 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. The company had revenue of $116.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.65 million. Equities analysts expect that First Busey will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.69%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.48%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.