Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) Stock Rating Upgraded by Hovde Group

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) was upgraded by equities researchers at Hovde Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $33.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $31.50. Hovde Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 29.72% from the company’s previous close.

Separately, Raymond James raised shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Business First Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of Business First Bancshares stock opened at $25.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $751.50 million, a PE ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.00. Business First Bancshares has a 1 year low of $18.97 and a 1 year high of $30.30. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $26.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.40.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.17. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.27 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Business First Bancshares news, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.63, for a total transaction of $105,987.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 203,077 shares in the company, valued at $5,407,940.51. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 12,480 shares of company stock valued at $329,972 over the last quarter. 6.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter worth $67,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Business First Bancshares by 81.8% during the 3rd 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 bought a new stake in shares of Business First Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $227,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 26.1% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 3,083 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Business First Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $333,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

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.