Mirabella Financial Services LLP Acquires Shares of 878,874 First Busey Corporation $BUSE

Mirabella Financial Services LLP bought a new position in shares of First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 878,874 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $20,113,000. First Busey makes up 2.1% of Mirabella Financial Services LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BUSE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in First Busey by 52.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,706,925 shares of the bank’s stock worth $101,670,000 after buying an additional 1,613,848 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in First Busey by 45.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,096,605 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $110,086,000 after acquiring an additional 1,596,262 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of First Busey during the 1st quarter valued at $19,861,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Busey by 648.8% during the 1st quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 918,907 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,848,000 after purchasing an additional 796,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Busey during the 1st quarter worth $16,837,000. 56.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on First Busey from $30.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price (down from $28.00) on shares of First Busey in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of First Busey in a research report on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Karen M. Jensen bought 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.60 per share, with a total value of $73,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 86,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,135,230.80. This represents a 3.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Scott A. Phillips acquired 1,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 31st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $25.64 per share, for a total transaction of $34,614.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief accounting officer directly owned 2,350 shares in the company, valued at $60,254. This trade represents a 135.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

First Busey Price Performance

BUSE stock opened at $24.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.03 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $23.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. First Busey Corporation has a 52-week low of $18.40 and a 52-week high of $27.29.

First Busey (NASDAQ:BUSE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 20th. The bank reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $63.34 million for the quarter. First Busey had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 9.05%. As a group, equities analysts expect that First Busey Corporation will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

First Busey Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 24th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 24th. First Busey’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 86.96%.

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.