Joseph Vernon Johnson Sells 3,980 Shares of Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Stock

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 3.5 %

NASDAQ BFST traded down $0.94 during trading on Thursday, hitting $26.19. The stock had a trading volume of 77,729 shares, compared to its average volume of 61,807. The company has a market capitalization of $667.90 million, a PE ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $22.87. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.97 and a twelve month high of $27.72.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $113.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.19% and a net margin of 15.90%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Hovde Group raised their price objective on Business First Bancshares from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. KG&L Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the third quarter worth about $227,000. Creative Planning acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares during the third quarter worth about $476,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 26.1% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 3,083 shares in the last quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp grew its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 1,380.0% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 370,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,051,000 after buying an additional 345,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 13.2% during the second quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 62,199 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,353,000 after buying an additional 7,247 shares in the last quarter. 47.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Business First Bancshares Company Profile

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.