Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Shares Sold by Rodgers Brothers Inc.

Rodgers Brothers Inc. decreased its stake in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) by 10.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,000 shares during the period. Rodgers Brothers Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Business First Bancshares worth $424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the third quarter valued at $67,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $111,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Business First Bancshares by 81.8% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $245,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Business First Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $294,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Business First Bancshares Price Performance

Business First Bancshares stock opened at $24.35 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $26.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $719.59 million, a P/E ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 1.04. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $18.97 and a 12-month high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 11.88%. Equities analysts predict that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, February 15th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BFST. Hovde Group raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James raised Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rick D. Day purchased 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought 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 approximately $6,728,696.10. This trade represents a 0.57 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 6.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.