Raymond James Upgrades Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) to Outperform

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) was upgraded by equities researchers at Raymond James from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $30.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.70% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Hovde Group lowered shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Business First Bancshares Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ BFST opened at $25.93 on Thursday. Business First Bancshares has a 52 week low of $18.97 and a 52 week high of $30.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $27.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.63. 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 firm has a market cap of $766.00 million, a PE ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.98.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 14.92%. The company had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $65.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total transaction of $158,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,891,282.52. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock worth $329,972. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Business First Bancshares by 8.2% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 669,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,568,000 after purchasing an additional 50,955 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 523,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,441,000 after buying an additional 24,992 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 418,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,115,000 after buying an additional 68,506 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Business First Bancshares by 9.7% in the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 384,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,862,000 after buying an additional 33,870 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mendon Capital Advisors Corp grew its holdings in Business First Bancshares by 1,380.0% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 370,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,051,000 after acquiring an additional 345,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.