AQR Capital Management LLC Grows Holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 1,181.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 170,340 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 157,049 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.30% of First Busey worth $4,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in First Busey by 81.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,516,000 after acquiring an additional 60,506 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of First Busey by 61.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 15,829 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in First Busey by 9.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,549,000 after purchasing an additional 39,900 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in First Busey by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,983 shares of the bank’s stock worth $400,000 after buying an additional 1,094 shares during the period. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in First Busey in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on BUSE. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James reduced their target price on First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered First Busey from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of BUSE opened at $21.81 on Friday. First Busey Co. has a 12 month low of $18.40 and a 12 month high of $28.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $21.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.54. 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 has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 0.75.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $140.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.15 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. Equities analysts forecast that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.59%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In related news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.