First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Shares Sold by Sapience Investments LLC

Sapience Investments LLC lowered its position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 64,138 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 10,556 shares during the period. Sapience Investments LLC owned about 0.11% of First Busey worth $1,512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of BUSE. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 81.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after buying an additional 60,506 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 61.5% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,983 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $400,000 after acquiring an additional 1,094 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 201,745 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,755,000 after acquiring an additional 9,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of First Busey from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of BUSE stock opened at $22.48 on Friday. First Busey Co. has a 1 year low of $18.40 and a 1 year high of $28.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.41 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The firm had revenue of $140.72 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.15 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.45%. First Busey’s payout ratio is presently 93.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw bought 1,838 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $23.75 per share, for a total transaction of $43,652.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 437,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,390,173.75. This trade represents a 0.42% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

First Busey 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.