Wellington Management Group LLP Sells 35,226 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Wellington Management Group LLP lowered its stake in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,723,105 shares of the bank's stock after selling 35,226 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 3.03% of First Busey worth $40,614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 168.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank's stock valued at $3,884,000 after purchasing an additional 93,733 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 127.9% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 24,330 shares of the bank's stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 13,654 shares during the last quarter. Centiva Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter valued at approximately $347,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter valued at approximately $171,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the third quarter worth $757,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BUSE. Raymond James reduced their price target 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. DA Davidson reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $27.80.

First Busey Price Performance

Shares of BUSE traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $19.43. The company had a trading volume of 852,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 322,269. 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 company has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.86 and a beta of 0.75. First Busey Co. has a twelve month low of $18.40 and a twelve month high of $28.97. The company's 50-day moving average is $22.56 and its 200-day moving average is $24.13.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. First Busey's payout ratio is 50.76%.

Insider Transactions at First Busey

In related news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,838 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was bought at an average price of $23.75 per share, with a total value of $43,652.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 437,481 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,390,173.75. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 7.10% of the company's stock.

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.