Hedge Funds Are Buying First Busey Corporation (BUSE)

As one would reasonably expect, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Stevens Capital Management, led by Matthew Tewksbury, initiated the largest position in First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE). According to its latest 13F filing, the fund had $0.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Muller’s PDT Partners also initiated a $0.2 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a brand new BUSE position is Gavin Saitowitz and Cisco J. del Valle’s Springbok Capital.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRK), Global Blood Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:GBT), Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA), and BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI). This group of stocks’ market values resemble BUSE’s market value.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 20 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $168 million. That figure was $22 million in BUSE’s case. Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRK) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) is even less popular than BATRA. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case more research is warranted.

Disclosure: none.