Business First Bancshares, Inc. (BFST) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 on May 31st

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given 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 by an average of 7.7% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive 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 Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of BFST traded down $1.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.66. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 64,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 42,395. The business has a fifty day moving average of $21.57 and a 200 day moving average of $21.65. The company has a market cap of $527.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 0.94. Business First Bancshares has a 1 year low of $13.05 and a 1 year high of $25.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.06. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 12.99% and a net margin of 17.08%. The company had revenue of $101.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Business First Bancshares will post 2.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, insider Warren Mcdonald sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 6.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BFST has been the subject of several recent research reports. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Business First Bancshares in a report on Monday, January 15th. Raymond James lowered Business First Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Business First Bancshares from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Business First Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.33.

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.