ProShare Advisors LLC Purchases 22,809 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE - Free Report) by 8.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 300,549 shares of the bank's stock after acquiring an additional 22,809 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.53% of First Busey worth $7,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank's stock worth $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 60,506 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in First Busey by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 15,829 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in First Busey by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,983 shares of the bank's stock worth $400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of First Busey during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of First Busey by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 201,745 shares of the bank's stock valued at $4,755,000 after buying an additional 9,811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, First Busey currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.80.

First Busey Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:BUSE traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $21.81. The stock had a trading volume of 457,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 356,842. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $21.19 and a 200 day moving average of $23.41. The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 0.75. First Busey Co. has a one year low of $18.40 and a one year high of $28.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. The business had revenue of $140.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $140.15 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.59%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. First Busey's payout ratio is 93.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw bought 1,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $21.70 per share, for a total transaction of $36,890.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,462,503.10. This represents a 0.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 7.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.