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

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 dividend 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% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Business First Bancshares has a payout ratio of 21.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Down 5.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BFST traded down $1.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $20.66. 64,611 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,395. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.65. Business First Bancshares has a 12-month low of $13.05 and a 12-month high of $25.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $527.66 million, a PE ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 0.94.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.38 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BFST shares. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Business First Bancshares from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock 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 cut shares of Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Business First Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.33.

Insider Transactions at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 7,000 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 24,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,725.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.