Sanctuary Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 30.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 10,670 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 4,775 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in First Busey were worth $291,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BUSE. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in First Busey by 2.7% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 20,427 shares of the bank’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 545 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of First Busey by 81.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,516,000 after acquiring an additional 60,506 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter valued at $345,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $337,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BUSE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stephens downgraded First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th.

First Busey Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $23.72 on Friday. First Busey Co. has a 1-year low of $21.68 and a 1-year high of $28.97. The company has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a PE ratio of 12.23 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. The business has a 50-day moving average of $25.82 and a 200-day moving average of $25.56.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $118.32 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that First Busey Co. will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.48%.

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.