Short Interest in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Expands By 33.9%

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, a growth of 33.9% from the October 15th total of 1,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 333,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days.

First Busey Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of BUSE traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $26.47. The stock had a trading volume of 215,086 shares, compared to its average volume of 228,641. First Busey has a 1 year low of $20.67 and a 1 year high of $28.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a PE ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $25.64 and its 200 day moving average is $24.93.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The business had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. First Busey’s payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 2.7% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 20,427 shares of the bank’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.4% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 87,257 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 8.8% in the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 15,889 shares of the bank’s stock worth $413,000 after purchasing an additional 1,286 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.1% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 121,310 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,156,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of First Busey in the second quarter worth about $34,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BUSE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Stephens downgraded shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

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.