First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Stock Holdings Boosted by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 65,446 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,400 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in First Busey were worth $1,543,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter valued at approximately $757,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in First Busey by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 482,287 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,549,000 after buying an additional 39,900 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in First Busey by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 111,799 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,635,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in First Busey by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,723,000 after acquiring an additional 22,096 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw bought 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BUSE. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 price target (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BUSE opened at $19.21 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.75 and a beta of 0.75. First Busey Co. has a 1-year low of $18.59 and a 1-year high of $28.97. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $23.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.45.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.21%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.76%.

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.