Empowered Funds LLC Purchases 9,811 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 201,745 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,811 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in First Busey were worth $4,755,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in First Busey by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,497,004 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,952,000 after acquiring an additional 6,367 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in First Busey by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after purchasing an additional 22,096 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,069,000 after purchasing an additional 8,083 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of First Busey by 9.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,549,000 after purchasing an additional 39,900 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 168.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,884,000 after buying an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their target price on First Busey from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, First Busey presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.75.

First Busey Stock Up 3.2 %

BUSE opened at $25.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.84 and a beta of 0.87. First Busey Co. has a one year low of $21.59 and a one year high of $28.97. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $24.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. Equities research analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.62 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. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. This is a boost from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is 50.76%.

First Busey Company Profile

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.