Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) Cut to Market Perform at Hovde Group

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) was downgraded by equities researchers at Hovde Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $31.50 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $30.00. Hovde Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 9.72% from the company’s previous close.

Business First Bancshares Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of BFST stock opened at $28.71 on Wednesday. Business First Bancshares has a 1-year low of $18.97 and a 1-year high of $30.30. The firm has a market cap of $848.09 million, a PE ratio of 12.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $25.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $113.52 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $65.24 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 14.92% and a return on equity of 11.57%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Business First Bancshares will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Business First Bancshares news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 1,500 shares of Business First Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.68, for a total transaction of $37,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $471,264.60. The trade was a 7.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Vernon Johnson sold 3,980 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.63, for a total value of $105,987.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 203,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,407,940.51. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 13,980 shares of company stock worth $366,992. 6.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BFST. Martingale Asset Management L P purchased a new position in Business First Bancshares in the third quarter valued at approximately $592,000. Fourthstone LLC acquired a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,150,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 81.8% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 8,631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Business First Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at $67,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Business First Bancshares by 194.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 196,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,037,000 after acquiring an additional 129,677 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.