M&T Bank Corp Grows Stock Holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,427 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 545 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in First Busey were worth $532,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Huntington National Bank acquired a new stake in First Busey in the third quarter valued at $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the third quarter valued at $43,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 257.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth about $171,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of 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 cut their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th.

First Busey Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $25.73 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.46 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.47. First Busey Co. has a 1-year low of $21.68 and a 1-year high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued 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. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.48%.

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.