Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Short Interest Down 42.4% in November

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 124,500 shares, a drop of 42.4% from the November 15th total of 216,200 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 88,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.4 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.36, for a total value of $158,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 185,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,891,282.52. The trade was a 3.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 12,480 shares of company stock worth $329,972 in the last quarter. 6.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Business First Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BFST. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 345,000 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 921.9% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 295,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,580,000 after acquiring an additional 266,380 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 194.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 196,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,037,000 after acquiring an additional 129,677 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Business First Bancshares by 19.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 418,869 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,115,000 after acquiring an additional 68,506 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Business First Bancshares by 8.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 669,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,568,000 after purchasing an additional 50,955 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

Business First Bancshares Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BFST traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $27.87. 82,493 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 67,305. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Business First Bancshares has a 12 month low of $18.97 and a 12 month high of $30.30. The company has a market cap of $823.28 million, a PE ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.39.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 14.92%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Business First Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Business First Bancshares’s payout ratio is 24.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Hovde Group lowered Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $31.50 in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.