First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Short Interest Update

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,730,000 shares, an increase of 8.8% from the November 30th total of 1,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 269,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Busey

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,549,000 after buying an additional 39,900 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in First Busey by 61.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 15,829 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in First Busey by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,723,000 after acquiring an additional 22,096 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 60,506 shares during the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of BUSE stock remained flat at $23.57 during trading on Wednesday. 178,100 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 227,525. The business’s fifty day moving average is $25.75 and its 200-day moving average is $25.60. First Busey has a twelve month low of $21.68 and a twelve month high of $28.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 0.86. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The company had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stephens downgraded shares of First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th.

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.