Business First Bancshares, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 (NASDAQ:BFST)

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th.

Business First Bancshares has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 21.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Business First Bancshares to earn $2.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 22.6%.

Business First Bancshares Price Performance

Business First Bancshares stock traded down $1.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.66. The company had a trading volume of 64,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 42,395. Business First Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $13.05 and a fifty-two week high of $25.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $527.66 million, a P/E ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.65.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.06. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 17.08% and a return on equity of 12.99%. The firm had revenue of $101.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Business First Bancshares will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BFST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James lowered shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Business First Bancshares from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Business First Bancshares in a report on Monday, January 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.33.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

In related news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 7,000 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.37, for a total transaction of $156,590.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 24,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,725.22. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 6.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.