First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Director Sells $51,428.00 in Stock

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Director Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.36, for a total value of $51,428.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 139,804 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,126,017.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Michael David Cassens also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 15th, Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of First Busey stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.96, for a total value of $52,808.00.
• On Thursday, February 15th, Michael David Cassens sold 2,300 shares of First Busey stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.02, for a total value of $52,946.00.

First Busey Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ BUSE traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $21.97. The stock had a trading volume of 57,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 159,771. First Busey Co. has a 1 year low of $16.26 and a 1 year high of $25.80. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of 10.19 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $23.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $108.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $107.74 million. First Busey had a net margin of 20.37% and a return on equity of 10.38%. On average, research analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.24%.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of First Busey by 102,760.3% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,102,710 shares of the bank’s stock worth $793,579,000 after acquiring an additional 32,071,500 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 6.6% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,491,872 shares of the bank’s stock worth $90,287,000 after buying an additional 279,222 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,278,444 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,372,000 after buying an additional 55,224 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,943,012 shares of the bank’s stock worth $73,046,000 after purchasing an additional 56,671 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 13.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,818,626 shares of the bank’s stock worth $46,084,000 after purchasing an additional 220,093 shares during the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.50.

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.