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

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) will likely be posting its quarterly earnings results after the market closes on Thursday, January 23rd. Analysts expect Business First Bancshares to post earnings of $0.49 per share and revenue of $74,745.25 billion for the quarter. Individual interested in participating in the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $113.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ:BFST opened at $26.02 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $768.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.22 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.36. Business First Bancshares has a 1-year low of $18.97 and a 1-year high of $30.30.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.14%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.63, for a total transaction of $105,987.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 203,077 shares in the company, valued at $5,407,940.51. The trade was a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972 in the last three months. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.