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NASDAQ:BFST

Business First Bancshares (BFST) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Business First Bancshares logo
$27.67 -0.14 (-0.50%)
(As of 11/20/2024 ET)

About Business First Bancshares Stock (NASDAQ:BFST)

Key Stats

Today's Range
$27.26
$28.00
50-Day Range
$23.96
$29.86
52-Week Range
$18.97
$30.30
Volume
69,407 shs
Average Volume
105,270 shs
Market Capitalization
$817.37 million
P/E Ratio
11.93
Dividend Yield
2.02%
Price Target
$28.75
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy

Company Overview

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. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans, such as working capital, term, equipment financing, asset acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, and other loan products, as well as commercial lines of credit, accounts receivable factoring, agricultural financing, and letters of credit; construction and development loans; commercial real estate loans; residential real estate loans comprising first and second lien 1-4 family mortgage loans, and home equity lines of credit; and consumer loans, including secured and unsecured installment, and term loans. In addition, it offers wealth management products, including mutual funds, annuities, individual retirement accounts, and other financial products, as well as other fiduciary and private banking products and services. Further, the company provides a range of other financial services comprising debit and credit cards, treasury and cash management, merchant, automated clearing house, lock-box, receivables factoring, correspondent banking, and other treasury services, as well as employee and payroll benefits solutions; and drive-through banking facilities, automated teller machines, night depository, personalized checks, electronic funds transfer, domestic and foreign wire transfer, traveler's checks, vault, loan and deposit sweep accounts, online and mobile banking, e-statements, and bank-by-mail services. Business First Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Business First Bancshares Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

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60th Percentile Overall Score

BFST MarketRank™: 

Business First Bancshares scored higher than 60% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 517th out of 930 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

  • Consensus Rating

    Business First Bancshares has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.50, and is based on 2 buy ratings, 2 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

  • Amount of Analyst Coverage

    Business First Bancshares has only been the subject of 1 research reports in the past 90 days.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' stock forecast and price target.
  • Earnings Growth

    Earnings for Business First Bancshares are expected to grow by 13.42% in the coming year, from $2.31 to $2.62 per share.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

    The P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 11.93, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 123.44.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

    The P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 11.93, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 45.55.

  • Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

    Business First Bancshares has a P/B Ratio of 1.30. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' valuation and earnings.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    0.50% of the outstanding shares of Business First Bancshares have been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 1.9, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Business First Bancshares has recently decreased by 1.59%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.
  • Dividend Yield

    Business First Bancshares pays a meaningful dividend of 2.01%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

  • Dividend Growth

    Business First Bancshares does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

  • Dividend Coverage

    The dividend payout ratio of Business First Bancshares is 24.14%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

  • Dividend Sustainability

    Based on earnings estimates, Business First Bancshares will have a dividend payout ratio of 21.37% next year. This indicates that Business First Bancshares will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' dividend.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    0.50% of the outstanding shares of Business First Bancshares have been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 1.9, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Business First Bancshares has recently decreased by 1.59%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.
  • News Sentiment

    Business First Bancshares has a news sentiment score of 0.14. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.76 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.
  • News Coverage This Week

    MarketBeat has tracked 3 news articles for Business First Bancshares this week, compared to 2 articles on an average week.
  • Search Interest

    1 people have searched for BFST on MarketBeat in the last 30 days.
  • MarketBeat Follows

    1 people have added Business First Bancshares to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.
  • Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

    In the past three months, Business First Bancshares insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $366,992.00 in company stock.

  • Percentage Held by Insiders

    Only 6.45% of the stock of Business First Bancshares is held by insiders.

  • Percentage Held by Institutions

    47.35% of the stock of Business First Bancshares is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' insider trading history.
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BFST Stock News Headlines

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See More Headlines

BFST Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

Business First Bancshares' stock was trading at $24.65 at the beginning of the year. Since then, BFST stock has increased by 12.3% and is now trading at $27.67.
View the best growth stocks for 2024 here
.

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) released its earnings results on Thursday, October, 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 11.57%.

Business First Bancshares' top institutional investors include Geode Capital Management LLC (1.90%), State Street Corp (1.77%), Banc Funds Co. LLC (1.57%) and The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (1.55%). Insiders that own company stock include Rick D Day, Joseph Vernon Johnson, Greg Robertson, Kenneth W Smith, James J Buquet III, Andrew D Mclindon, Jesse Jackson, Warren Mcdonald, Steven Gerard White, Kathryn Manning, Saundra Strong, John P Ducrest, Carol Calkins and Drew C Brees.
View institutional ownership trends
.

Shares of BFST stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.
Compare Top Brokerages Here.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Business First Bancshares investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Netflix (NFLX) and ServiceNow (NOW).

Company Calendar

Ex-Dividend for 8/31 Dividend
8/15/2024
Dividend Payable
8/31/2024
Last Earnings
10/24/2024
Ex-Dividend for 11/30 Dividend
11/15/2024
Today
11/21/2024
Dividend Payable
11/30/2024
Fiscal Year End
12/31/2024
Next Earnings (Estimated)
1/28/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

Sector
Finance
Industry
State commercial banks
Sub-Industry
Banking
Current Symbol
NASDAQ:BFST
Employees
750
Year Founded
N/A

Price Target and Rating

Average Stock Price Target
$28.75
High Stock Price Target
$31.50
Low Stock Price Target
$26.00
Potential Upside/Downside
+3.9%
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy
Rating Score (0-4)
2.50
Research Coverage
4 Analysts

Profitability

Net Income
$71.04 million
Pretax Margin
19.00%

Debt

Sales & Book Value

Annual Sales
$254.16 million
Cash Flow
$2.83 per share
Book Value
$22.58 per share

Miscellaneous

Free Float
27,636,000
Market Cap
$817.40 million
Optionable
Optionable
Beta
0.97
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This page (NASDAQ:BFST) was last updated on 11/21/2024 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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