Dark Forest Capital Management LP Buys New Position in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 36,639 shares of the bank's stock, valued at approximately $864,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP owned approximately 0.06% of First Busey at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in First Busey by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,500,343 shares of the bank's stock worth $82,503,000 after acquiring an additional 110,895 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of First Busey by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,295,804 shares of the bank's stock valued at $33,723,000 after acquiring an additional 22,096 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Busey by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,122,896 shares of the bank's stock worth $26,467,000 after buying an additional 58,982 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in First Busey by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 707,323 shares of the bank's stock worth $16,672,000 after acquiring an additional 12,879 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of First Busey by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 671,402 shares of the bank's stock valued at $15,825,000 after purchasing an additional 189,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Stanley J. Bradshaw bought 1,838 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $23.75 per share, with a total value of $43,652.50. Following the purchase, the director now owns 437,481 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,390,173.75. The trade was a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 7.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BUSE shares. 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. StockNews.com cut First Busey from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Friday. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of First Busey from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of First Busey in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $33.00 price target (down from $34.00) on shares of First Busey in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BUSE traded up $0.27 on Monday, reaching $20.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 303,743 shares, compared to its average volume of 339,376. 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 52-week low of $18.40 and a 52-week high of $28.97. The stock's 50-day moving average is $21.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.63 and a beta of 0.75.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $140.72 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.15 million. First Busey had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 8.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that First Busey Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. First Busey's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 93.46%.

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.