Peregrine Capital Management LLC Makes New $5.50 Million Investment in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Peregrine Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 233,258 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $5,498,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BUSE. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Huntington National Bank bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $171,000. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $224,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $330,000. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BUSE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of First Busey from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, First Busey has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.75.

First Busey Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of BUSE stock opened at $24.68 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. First Busey Co. has a 1 year low of $21.59 and a 1 year high of $28.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.53 and a beta of 0.87.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.01. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. As a group, analysts anticipate that First Busey Co. will post 2.62 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a positive change from First Busey’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. First Busey’s payout ratio is 50.76%.

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.