Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Rick D. Day Buys 1,500 Shares

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Rick D. Day acquired 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.46 per share, for a total transaction of $38,190.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 264,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,728,696.10. This represents a 0.57 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Business First Bancshares Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of BFST opened at $25.29 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $747.09 million, a P/E ratio of 11.19 and a beta of 1.04. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $18.97 and a one year high of $30.30. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.19.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 11.88%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s payout ratio is 24.78%.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BFST. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 106.7% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $67,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $67,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $85,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at $94,000. Institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Hovde Group raised Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James raised Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th.

About Business First Bancshares

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.