Wellington Management Group LLP Lowers Stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,723,105 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 35,226 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 3.03% of First Busey worth $40,614,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey during the third quarter worth $757,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in First Busey by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 111,799 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,635,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 worth $12,549,000 after acquiring an additional 39,900 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 168.7% in the third 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 increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 22,096 shares during the period. 56.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $21.70 per share, for a total transaction of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares in the company, valued at $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BUSE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James decreased their price target on First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $33.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Performance

NASDAQ BUSE opened at $19.21 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $23.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.44. 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E 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.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is 50.76%.

First Busey 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.