Rick D. Day Acquires 1,500 Shares of Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Stock

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Director Rick D. Day acquired 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.46 per share, for a total transaction of $38,190.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 264,285 shares in the company, valued at $6,728,696.10. The trade was a 0.57 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Business First Bancshares Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ:BFST traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $25.29. The company had a trading volume of 77,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 102,824. The firm has a market cap of $747.09 million, a P/E ratio of 11.19 and a beta of 1.00. Business First Bancshares, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.97 and a fifty-two week high of $30.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $26.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.19.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.88% and a net margin of 14.19%. As a group, research analysts expect that Business First Bancshares, Inc. will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Business First Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, February 15th were paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Business First Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Business First Bancshares by 106.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at $67,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares during the 4th quarter worth $67,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Business First Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth about $85,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at $94,000. Institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

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.