DA Davidson Analysts Increase Earnings Estimates for BFST

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) – DA Davidson upped their FY2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Business First Bancshares in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, January 28th. DA Davidson analyst M. Navas now anticipates that the company will post earnings of $3.10 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $2.70. The consensus estimate for Business First Bancshares’ current full-year earnings is $2.27 per share.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Raymond James upgraded Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th.

Business First Bancshares Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of BFST opened at $27.42 on Thursday. Business First Bancshares has a 12 month low of $18.97 and a 12 month high of $30.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market cap of $809.99 million, a PE ratio of 11.82 and a beta of 1.00.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, February 15th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.14%.

Insider Activity at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $158,160.00. Following the transaction, 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BFST. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Business First Bancshares by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 669,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,568,000 after acquiring an additional 50,955 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 6.8% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 53,006 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,154,000 after purchasing an additional 3,385 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the second quarter worth about $333,000. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp grew its stake in Business First Bancshares by 1,380.0% in the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 370,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,051,000 after purchasing an additional 345,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in Business First Bancshares by 26.1% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 3,083 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 47.35% 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.