Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Shares Bought by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 384,200 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 33,870 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Business First Bancshares were worth $9,862,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BFST. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at $106,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the second quarter valued at about $116,000. KG&L Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the third quarter worth about $227,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 75.8% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 5,004 shares during the period. Finally, Argent Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Argent Advisors Inc. now owns 12,949 shares of the company’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 497 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Business First Bancshares Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of Business First Bancshares stock opened at $28.20 on Friday. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.97 and a twelve month high of $30.30. The stock has a market cap of $833.06 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $26.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.45.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $113.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Hovde Group cut 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 report on Wednesday.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

In related news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.63, for a total value of $105,987.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 203,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,407,940.51. The trade was a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.68, for a total value of $37,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $471,264.60. This represents a 7.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,980 shares of company stock valued at $366,992. Corporate insiders own 6.45% of the company’s stock.

Business First Bancshares 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.