E&G Advisors LP Purchases Shares of 27,300 Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST)

E&G Advisors LP bought a new position in Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 27,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,000. E&G Advisors LP owned about 0.09% of Business First Bancshares at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter worth $67,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 81.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $227,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 26.1% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $383,000 after purchasing an additional 3,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $333,000. Institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on BFST shares. Raymond James raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Hovde Group raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Business First Bancshares Stock Down 1.5 %

BFST stock opened at $26.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $785.20 million, a PE ratio of 11.76 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.64. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a 12 month low of $18.97 and a 12 month high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.19% and a return on equity of 11.88%. Equities analysts expect that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. Business First Bancshares’s payout ratio is 24.78%.

Business First Bancshares 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.