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

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, February 15th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th.

Business First Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.8% per year over the last three years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 18.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Business First Bancshares to earn $2.54 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 22.0%.

Business First Bancshares Stock Performance

BFST stock opened at $27.69 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $817.96 million, a P/E ratio of 11.94 and a beta of 1.00. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.40. Business First Bancshares has a 52 week low of $18.97 and a 52 week high of $30.30.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BFST has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James upgraded 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 shares of Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

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