Insider Buying: First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) EVP Purchases 1,005 Shares of Stock

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) EVP John Joseph Powers bought 1,005 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.44 per share, for a total transaction of $20,542.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $312,241.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

First Busey Stock Performance

BUSE traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $22.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 204,873 shares, compared to its average volume of 162,617. The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. First Busey Co. has a twelve month low of $16.26 and a twelve month high of $25.80.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 18th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.48%.

Institutional Trading of First Busey

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $369,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 32,280 shares of the bank’s stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 385,328 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,406,000 after acquiring an additional 5,025 shares during the period. Everhart Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of First Busey by 40.6% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 15,819 shares of the bank’s stock worth $304,000 after acquiring an additional 4,566 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.75.

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.