Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.14

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 24th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share on Saturday, November 30th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th.

Business First Bancshares has raised its dividend by an average of 7.7% per year over the last three years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 21.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Business First Bancshares to earn $2.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.4%.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 3.2 %

NASDAQ BFST opened at $28.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $844.25 million, a P/E ratio of 12.30 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Business First Bancshares has a one year low of $18.97 and a one year high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 14.92%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. Research analysts expect that Business First Bancshares will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Hovde Group lowered shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $31.50 in a report on Wednesday.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.68, for a total transaction of $37,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,095 shares in the company, valued at approximately $471,264.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Business First Bancshares news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.68, for a total transaction of $37,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $471,264.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $158,160.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,891,282.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,980 shares of company stock valued at $366,992 over the last ninety days. 6.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Business First Bancshares Company Profile

Business First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for b1BANK that provides various banking products and services in Louisiana and Texas. It offers various deposit products and services, including checking, demand, money market, time, and savings accounts; and certificates of deposits, remote deposit capture, and direct deposit services.