BFST vs. HBNC, CCB, TRST, IBCP, EQBK, CPF, CATC, MSBI, HTBK, and EGBN
Should you be buying Business First Bancshares stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Business First Bancshares include Horizon Bancorp (HBNC), Coastal Financial (CCB), TrustCo Bank Corp NY (TRST), Independent Bank (IBCP), Equity Bancshares (EQBK), Central Pacific Financial (CPF), Cambridge Bancorp (CATC), Midland States Bancorp (MSBI), Heritage Commerce (HTBK), and Eagle Bancorp (EGBN). These companies are all part of the "state commercial banks" industry.
Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) and Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, media sentiment, earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.
Business First Bancshares has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Horizon Bancorp. Business First Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Horizon Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Horizon Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.1%. Business First Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Horizon Bancorp pays out 118.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Business First Bancshares pays out 22.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Business First Bancshares has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.
64.5% of Horizon Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.3% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Horizon Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Business First Bancshares has a net margin of 17.08% compared to Business First Bancshares' net margin of 7.02%. Horizon Bancorp's return on equity of 12.80% beat Business First Bancshares' return on equity.
In the previous week, Business First Bancshares had 1 more articles in the media than Horizon Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Business First Bancshares and 4 mentions for Horizon Bancorp. Horizon Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Business First Bancshares' score of 0.59 indicating that Business First Bancshares is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Horizon Bancorp received 182 more outperform votes than Business First Bancshares when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.63% of users gave Horizon Bancorp an outperform vote while only 57.73% of users gave Business First Bancshares an outperform vote.
Horizon Bancorp has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Business First Bancshares has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Horizon Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $12.50, indicating a potential downside of 1.19%. Business First Bancshares has a consensus target price of $23.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.58%. Given Horizon Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Business First Bancshares is more favorable than Horizon Bancorp.
Summary
Business First Bancshares beats Horizon Bancorp on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BFST and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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