Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC Acquires 6,364 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,910 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,364 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC owned approximately 0.09% of First Busey worth $1,176,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BUSE. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 81.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 135,069 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,516,000 after purchasing an additional 60,506 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 61.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 41,550 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after purchasing an additional 15,829 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,983 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of First Busey in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of First Busey by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 201,745 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,755,000 after purchasing an additional 9,811 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James cut their price objective on First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective 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. StockNews.com downgraded First Busey from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of BUSE opened at $22.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a PE ratio of 11.43 and a beta of 0.75. First Busey Co. has a 12 month low of $18.40 and a 12 month high of $28.97. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $21.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $140.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.15 million. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 17.14%. On average, analysts anticipate that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business 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 4.44%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. First Busey’s payout ratio is presently 93.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Busey news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw acquired 1,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,462,503.10. This trade represents a 0.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

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.