First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) Short Interest Up 33.9% in October

First Busey Co. (NASDAQ:BUSE) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, a growth of 33.9% from the October 15th total of 1,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 333,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BUSE. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the second quarter worth approximately $34,000. Huntington National Bank acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of First Busey during the third quarter worth $43,000. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of First Busey by 257.4% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of First Busey during the first quarter valued at $115,000. 56.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of First Busey from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. DA Davidson lifted 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. Stephens cut First Busey from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of First Busey from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.80.

First Busey Stock Performance

BUSE stock traded down $0.24 during trading on Friday, reaching $26.47. 215,086 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 228,641. First Busey has a twelve month low of $20.67 and a twelve month high of $28.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.64 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.93.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. First Busey had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $170.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.32 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.55 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that First Busey will post 2.07 earnings per share for the current year.

First Busey Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.48%.

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.