Insider Buying: Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Purchases $38,190.00 in Stock

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Rick D. Day purchased 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.46 per share, for a total transaction of $38,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 264,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,728,696.10. This represents a 0.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Business First Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BFST opened at $25.03 on Friday. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.97 and a twelve month high of $30.30. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.20. The company has a market capitalization of $739.41 million, a PE ratio of 11.08 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted 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%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, February 15th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 24.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Creative Planning bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $476,000. KG&L Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $227,000. Summit Global Investments purchased a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $405,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $432,000. Finally, Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in Business First Bancshares by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 384,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,862,000 after buying an additional 33,870 shares during the period. 47.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.