Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 26,540 First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 26,540 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $626,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BUSE. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in First Busey by 1,173.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,439 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of First Busey during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 161.1% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,697 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 822.7% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its stake in First Busey by 507.5% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,786 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 1,492 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Raymond James decreased their price target 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of First Busey from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $21.81 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $18.40 and a 1 year high of $28.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $21.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.54. The company has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 0.75.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $140.15 million. As a group, analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.59%. First Busey’s payout ratio is 93.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $21.70 per share, for a total transaction of $36,890.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares in the company, valued at $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate 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.