BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:BAFN) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Up 66.9% in September

BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:BAFN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 647,053 shares, an increase of 66.9% from the September 15th total of 387,576 shares. Approximately 5.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 256,926 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in BayFirst Financial stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:BAFN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 52,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000. BlackRock Inc. owned 1.29% of BayFirst Financial as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Institutional investors own 16.88% of the company’s stock.

BayFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of BAFN opened at $6.34 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. BayFirst Financial has a 1 year low of $4.26 and a 1 year high of $10.18. The stock has a market cap of $170.95 million, a P/E ratio of -0.43 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $7.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.55.

BayFirst Financial (NASDAQ:BAFN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($8.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.61 million for the quarter. BayFirst Financial had a negative return on equity of 101.15% and a negative net margin of 80.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAFN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut BayFirst Financial from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BayFirst Financial to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating. According to data from MarketBeat, BayFirst Financial currently has an average rating of “Sell”.

BayFirst Financial Company Profile

BayFirst Financial Corp. is a bank holding company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Through its subsidiary, BayFirst National Bank, the company provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

BayFirst National Bank offers deposit products, consumer and commercial lending, business banking, treasury management and other traditional community-banking services. Its lending activities include commercial real estate, commercial and industrial loans, residential mortgage lending and Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.