Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Short Interest Update

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 198,900 shares, a decline of 13.7% from the January 15th total of 230,500 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 114,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in Business First Bancshares by 106.7% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $67,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $67,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $111,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Business First Bancshares by 81.8% in the 3rd 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BFST shares. Raymond James raised 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 note on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group raised Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 0.2 %

BFST traded down $0.06 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.44. The company had a trading volume of 60,386 shares, compared to its average volume of 114,905. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.81. The company has a market cap of $810.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.14 and a beta of 1.00. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.88% and a net margin of 14.19%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

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