Short Interest in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Rises By 7.2%

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 133,500 shares, an increase of 7.2% from the November 30th total of 124,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 94,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $158,160.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,891,282.52. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the second quarter worth $106,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares in the second quarter valued at $116,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Business First Bancshares by 81.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KG&L Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth about $227,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BFST has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Hovde Group cut shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. 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.

Business First Bancshares Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ BFST traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $25.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 54,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 70,058. Business First Bancshares has a 1 year low of $18.97 and a 1 year high of $30.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $763.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.13 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $113.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Business First Bancshares will post 2.29 EPS for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.14%.

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.