Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Purchases 12,879 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 707,323 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,879 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 1.24% of First Busey worth $16,672,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in First Busey by 145.4% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 28,954 shares of the bank’s stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 17,155 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter valued at $348,000. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $224,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in First Busey during the third quarter worth $330,000. 56.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BUSE shares. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.00.

First Busey Price Performance

BUSE stock opened at $22.01 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.84. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.17 and a beta of 0.84. First Busey Co. has a 52-week low of $21.21 and a 52-week high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced 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%. Research analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.54%. This is an increase from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.76%.

Insider Activity at First Busey

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw purchased 1,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $10,462,503.10. The trade was a 0.35 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 7.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.