Emerald Advisers LLC Has $57,000 Holdings in First Busey Corporation $BUSE

Emerald Advisers LLC lessened its position in shares of First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 99.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,509 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 382,991 shares during the quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC’s holdings in First Busey were worth $57,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 12,965 shares of the bank’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 572 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 129.1% during the 2nd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 61,668 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,411,000 after buying an additional 34,746 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 108.2% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 11,083 shares of the bank’s stock worth $254,000 after buying an additional 5,761 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,913 shares of the bank’s stock worth $387,000 after buying an additional 1,038 shares during the period. Finally, SummerHaven Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 69,002 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,579,000 after buying an additional 695 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on BUSE. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $28.00 target price (up previously from $27.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Friday, August 29th. DA Davidson raised their target price on First Busey from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on First Busey from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Busey

In other news, CFO Scott A. Phillips bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.25 per share, with a total value of $25,250.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer owned 1,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,250. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Karen M. Jensen bought 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.60 per share, with a total value of $73,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 86,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,135,230.80. This trade represents a 3.58% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

First Busey Trading Down 3.1%

BUSE stock opened at $22.53 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $23.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.97. First Busey Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $18.40 and a fifty-two week high of $28.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 20th. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.56% and a net margin of 11.00%.The firm had revenue of $63.34 million during the quarter. Analysts expect that First Busey Corporation will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 24th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 24th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.29%.

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.