First Busey Corporation (BUSE): Hedge Fund Sentiment Unchanged

However, there also were a few funds who sold off their entire stakes heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Joseph A. Jolson’s Harvest Capital Strategies said goodbye to the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling an estimated $0.4 million in stock, and Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $0.1 million worth of stock.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) but similarly valued. These stocks are Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HALO), Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ:SANM), USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE:USNA), and Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK). All of these stocks’ market caps are closest to BUSE’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $149 million. That figure was just $8 million in BUSE’s case. Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HALO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK) is the least popular one with only 12 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks First Busey Corporation (NASDAQ:BUSE) is even less popular than SHAK. Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies mentioned 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.