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

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Shareholders 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 is Tuesday, May 14th.

Business First Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 21.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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

BFST traded down $1.11 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $20.66. The company had a trading volume of 64,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 42,395. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $527.66 million, a PE ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 0.94. Business First Bancshares has a twelve month low of $13.05 and a twelve month high of $25.57. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.65.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Business First Bancshares from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Business First Bancshares in a research note on Monday, January 15th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 7,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,306 shares in the company, valued at $543,725.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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.