American Century Companies Inc. Has $26.47 Million Stock Holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,122,896 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 58,982 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 1.97% of First Busey worth $26,467,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in First Busey by 1,173.5% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in First Busey during the third quarter worth $171,000. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in First Busey in the third quarter valued at $224,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in First Busey during the third quarter valued at $330,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BUSE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.00.

First Busey Trading Down 3.1 %

NASDAQ BUSE opened at $21.69 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. First Busey Co. has a 52 week low of $21.21 and a 52 week high of $28.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $23.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.64. The company has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01 and a beta of 0.84.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. First Busey’s payout ratio is currently 50.76%.

Insider Transactions at First Busey

In related news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following 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 position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

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.