Business First Bancshares (BFST) Expected to Announce Earnings on Thursday

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) is expected to announce its earnings results after the market closes on Thursday, January 23rd. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.49 per share and revenue of $74,745.25 billion for the quarter. Investors that wish to register for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.11. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The firm had revenue of $113.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $65.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect Business First Bancshares to post $2 EPS for the current fiscal year and $3 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of BFST stock opened at $25.58 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a market cap of $755.63 million, a PE ratio of 11.03 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.33. Business First Bancshares has a 52 week low of $18.97 and a 52 week high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.14%.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

In related news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.63, for a total value of $105,987.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 203,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,407,940.51. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James upgraded Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group downgraded shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.