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

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th.

Business First Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.8% annually over the last three years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 18.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Business First Bancshares to earn $2.54 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 22.0%.

Business First Bancshares Stock Up 8.8 %

Business First Bancshares stock opened at $27.69 on Friday. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $817.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.94 and a beta of 1.00. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 14.92%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Business First Bancshares will post 2.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BFST has been the subject of several recent research reports. Hovde Group upgraded Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday. 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 report on Thursday, December 19th.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

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 transaction of $65,825.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 183,057 shares in the company, valued at $4,819,890.81. The trade was a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock worth $329,972 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 6.45% of the company’s stock.

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.