15,445 Shares in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Purchased by Sanctuary Advisors LLC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 15,445 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $352,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in First Busey by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,552,667 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,537,000 after buying an additional 57,392 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in First Busey by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,359,080 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,686,000 after buying an additional 72,800 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in First Busey by 22.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,159,907 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,895,000 after buying an additional 212,782 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in First Busey by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank’s stock worth $22,937,000 after buying an additional 163,042 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in First Busey by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 411,749 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,968,000 after buying an additional 6,658 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of BUSE stock opened at $26.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.91 and a 200-day moving average of $24.53. First Busey Co. has a one year low of $17.51 and a one year high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $116.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $116.65 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.66%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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