Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Purchases 59,077 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) by 442.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 72,438 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,077 shares during the quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.13% of First Busey worth $1,707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BUSE. Huntington National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in First Busey by 145.4% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 28,954 shares of the bank’s stock worth $754,000 after buying an additional 17,155 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in First Busey during the 3rd quarter valued at $224,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of First Busey by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 694,444 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,069,000 after acquiring an additional 8,083 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of First Busey by 168.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 149,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,884,000 after acquiring an additional 93,733 shares in the last quarter. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of First Busey in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.00.

Insider Activity

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 acquired at an average cost of $21.70 per share, with a total value of $36,890.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 482,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,462,503.10. The trade was a 0.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 7.10% of the company’s stock.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of First Busey stock opened at $22.19 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $23.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. First Busey Co. has a 52 week low of $21.21 and a 52 week high of $28.97.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. 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 4.51%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.76%.

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.