Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 254,400 shares, an increase of 90.6% from the December 31st total of 133,500 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 99,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Business First Bancshares news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.33, for a total transaction of $65,825.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 183,057 shares in the company, valued at $4,819,890.81. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 6.45% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $67,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 81.8% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the third quarter worth approximately $227,000. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the second quarter worth approximately $333,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Business First Bancshares by 26.1% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,000 after acquiring an additional 3,083 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Business First Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ BFST opened at $27.29 on Wednesday. Business First Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $18.97 and a fifty-two week high of $30.30. The stock has a market cap of $806.15 million, a PE ratio of 11.76 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.57.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 14.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that Business First Bancshares will post 2.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BFST has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective 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 boosted their price target for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th.

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.