Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases 8,515 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 397.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,660 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 8,515 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in First Busey were worth $258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 87,257 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 257.4% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in First Busey by 10.0% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,866 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $384,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EMC Capital Management increased its position in shares of First Busey by 27.3% during the first quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 8,606 shares of the bank’s stock worth $207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,848 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Stock Down 0.2 %

BUSE opened at $24.65 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 0.84. First Busey Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.51 and a fifty-two week high of $28.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $116.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.65 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 17.18%. On average, research analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on BUSE shares. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.60.

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.