Semanteon Capital Management LP Takes $417,000 Position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Semanteon Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 17,709 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $417,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BUSE. Peregrine Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the fourth quarter valued at $5,498,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 168.7% during 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 during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 81.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after acquiring an additional 60,506 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 442.2% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 72,438 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,707,000 after acquiring an additional 59,077 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of First Busey by 193.7% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 85,027 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,004,000 after acquiring an additional 56,073 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ BUSE opened at $22.05 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.19 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 $23.43 and its 200-day moving average is $24.80. First Busey Co. has a one year low of $21.21 and a one year high of $28.97.

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

First Busey Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.76%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BUSE has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.00.

Insider Transactions at First Busey

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 482,143 shares in the company, valued at $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 7.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.