First Busey Corporation $BUSE Stock Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its position in First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 95.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,040 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 234,851 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in First Busey were worth $292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 4.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,067,210 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $128,046,000 after purchasing an additional 194,343 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in First Busey in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,712,000. Rhino Investment Partners Inc grew its holdings in First Busey by 101.3% in the 1st quarter. Rhino Investment Partners Inc now owns 492,113 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,436,000 after buying an additional 247,589 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in First Busey by 16.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 475,547 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,017,000 after acquiring an additional 65,745 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in First Busey by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 301,323 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,614,000 after acquiring an additional 36,140 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other news, Director Michael Cassens sold 1,441 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.12, for a total value of $41,961.92. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 128,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,743,987.52. This represents a 1.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 4,323 shares of company stock valued at $130,627 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.77% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Price Performance

NASDAQ BUSE opened at $28.88 on Friday. First Busey Corporation has a 12 month low of $22.12 and a 12 month high of $31.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 0.76. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.09.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $194.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.77 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 10.47% and a net margin of 21.13%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that First Busey Corporation will post 2.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 23rd were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 23rd. First Busey’s payout ratio is currently 42.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BUSE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered First Busey from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 31st. Piper Sandler cut shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of First Busey in a research note on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of First Busey from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.00.

First Busey Profile

First Busey Corporation is a financial holding company headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. Its principal subsidiary, Busey Bank, provides consumer and commercial banking services, including deposit accounts, loans, treasury management and mortgage services. The company also offers wealth management services, such as investment management, financial planning and trust services, through Busey Wealth Management. Its FirsTech business provides payment technology and processing services to businesses and organizations.