Michael David Cassens Sells 1,240 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Stock

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Director Michael David Cassens sold 1,240 shares of First Busey stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.00, for a total transaction of $27,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 155,993 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,431,846. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

First Busey Price Performance

NASDAQ:BUSE traded up $0.15 on Friday, hitting $21.66. The company had a trading volume of 68,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 170,678. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $19.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.98. First Busey Co. has a 52 week low of $16.26 and a 52 week high of $26.73.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $108.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $108.09 million. First Busey had a net margin of 22.76% and a return on equity of 11.26%. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Busey Co. will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 20th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.43%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 19th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.38%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BUSE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of First Busey from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of First Busey from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in First Busey by 102,760.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,102,710 shares of the bank’s stock worth $793,579,000 after buying an additional 32,071,500 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in First Busey by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,491,872 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $90,287,000 after purchasing an additional 279,222 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in First Busey by 0.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,223,707 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $64,797,000 after buying an additional 20,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in First Busey by 13.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,818,626 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,084,000 after buying an additional 220,093 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in First Busey by 48.6% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,525,185 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,656,000 after buying an additional 498,963 shares during the period. 53.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Busey Company Profile

First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individual, corporate, institutional, and governmental customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Banking, FirsTech, and Wealth Management.