Business First Bancshares (BFST) Projected to Post Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) is expected to release its earnings data after the market closes on Thursday, January 23rd. Analysts expect Business First Bancshares to post earnings of $0.49 per share and revenue of $74,745.25 billion for the quarter.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 company posted $0.71 EPS. On average, analysts expect Business First Bancshares to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $3 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BFST opened at $25.37 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.25. Business First Bancshares has a 52 week low of $18.97 and a 52 week high of $30.30. The company has a market cap of $749.46 million, a P/E ratio of 10.94 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Business First Bancshares

In other news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total transaction of $158,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares in the company, valued at $4,891,282.52. This trade represents a 3.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972 over the last three months. 6.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Raymond James raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group downgraded Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.