First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Short Interest Update

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,730,000 shares, an increase of 8.8% from the November 30th total of 1,590,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 269,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BUSE. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on First Busey from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens downgraded First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, October 14th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Busey

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BUSE. Huntington National Bank acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the third quarter worth $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in First Busey during the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in First Busey in the 3rd quarter valued at about $171,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey during the third quarter valued at about $224,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Price Performance

First Busey stock opened at $23.57 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.15 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $25.75 and a 200-day moving average of $25.60. First Busey has a 52-week low of $21.68 and a 52-week high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that First Busey will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

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.