Short Interest in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Expands By 24.1%

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 246,800 shares, an increase of 24.1% from the January 31st total of 198,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 107,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James upgraded shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Rick D. Day bought 1,500 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.46 per share, with a total value of $38,190.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 264,285 shares in the company, valued at $6,728,696.10. The trade was a 0.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 6.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Business First Bancshares by 106.7% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 543 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the third quarter worth about $67,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $67,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth about $85,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $94,000. 47.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 1.7 %

BFST stock traded down $0.44 on Thursday, reaching $24.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 100,562. The firm has a market cap of $734.24 million, a PE ratio of 11.04 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.19. Business First Bancshares has a 12-month low of $18.97 and a 12-month high of $30.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 11.88%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, February 15th were paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 24.78%.

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.