Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Short Interest Down 42.4% in November

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) saw a large decline in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 124,500 shares, a decline of 42.4% from the November 15th total of 216,200 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 88,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of BFST stock traded down $0.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $27.87. 82,493 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 67,305. The company has a market cap of $823.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.39. Business First Bancshares has a 1-year low of $18.97 and a 1-year high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.14%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 2,500 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.33, for a total value of $65,825.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 183,057 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,819,890.81. This trade represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,480 shares of company stock worth $329,972. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the third quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the second quarter worth $106,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Business First Bancshares during the second quarter worth $116,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Business First Bancshares by 81.8% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KG&L Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Business First Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $227,000. Institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Hovde Group downgraded Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.