Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Buys 68,585 Shares of First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE - Free Report) by 211.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,952 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 68,585 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.18% of First Busey worth $2,627,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BUSE. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in First Busey by 5.7% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,359,080 shares of the bank's stock valued at $32,686,000 after purchasing an additional 72,800 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 22.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,159,907 shares of the bank's stock worth $27,895,000 after acquiring an additional 212,782 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of First Busey by 20.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 947,406 shares of the bank's stock worth $22,937,000 after acquiring an additional 163,042 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of First Busey by 1.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 411,749 shares of the bank's stock worth $9,968,000 after acquiring an additional 6,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of First Busey by 28.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 386,231 shares of the bank's stock worth $9,351,000 after acquiring an additional 86,492 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 56.49% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BUSE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Stephens lowered shares of First Busey from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, October 14th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of First Busey from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of BUSE traded down $0.47 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $24.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 124,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 223,207. The firm has a market cap of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71 and a beta of 0.84. First Busey Co. has a 1-year low of $19.27 and a 1-year high of $28.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $25.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.66.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $170.45 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $118.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that First Busey Co. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.92%. First Busey's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.48%.

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.