Short Interest in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Rises By 7.2%

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) saw a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 133,500 shares, an increase of 7.2% from the November 30th total of 124,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 94,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $158,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,891,282.52. This represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972. 6.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

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

Business First Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BFST traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $25.83. The stock had a trading volume of 54,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 70,058. 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 has a market cap of $763.04 million, a P/E ratio of 11.13 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.92. Business First Bancshares has a 12-month low of $18.97 and a 12-month high of $30.30.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Business First Bancshares will post 2.29 EPS for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.14%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BFST has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Hovde Group cut shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

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.