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Business First Bancshares (BFST) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Business First Bancshares logo
$23.60 -0.07 (-0.30%)
Closing price 10/8/2025 04:00 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$23.60 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 10/8/2025 05:24 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

About Business First Bancshares Stock (NASDAQ:BFST)

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Key Stats

Today's Range
$23.49
$23.83
50-Day Range
$22.92
$25.62
52-Week Range
$20.07
$30.30
Volume
69,038 shs
Average Volume
98,317 shs
Market Capitalization
$698.56 million
P/E Ratio
9.40
Dividend Yield
2.37%
Price Target
$30.75
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy

Company Overview

Business First Bancshares Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

See Top-Rated MarketRank™ Stocks
93rd Percentile Overall Score

BFST MarketRank™: 

Business First Bancshares scored higher than 93% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 151st out of 928 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

  • Consensus Rating

    Business First Bancshares has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.80, and is based on 4 buy ratings, 1 hold rating, and no sell ratings.

  • Upside Potential

    Business First Bancshares has a consensus price target of $30.75, representing about 30.3% upside from its current price of $23.60.

  • Amount of Analyst Coverage

    Business First Bancshares has only been the subject of 2 research reports in the past 90 days.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' stock forecast and price target.
  • Earnings Growth

    Earnings for Business First Bancshares are expected to grow by 8.82% in the coming year, from $2.72 to $2.96 per share.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

    The P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 9.40, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 234.53.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

    The P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 9.40, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 30.22.

  • Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

    Business First Bancshares has a P/B Ratio of 0.96. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' valuation and earnings.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    0.73% of the outstanding shares of Business First Bancshares have been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Business First Bancshares has recently decreased by 9.43%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.
  • Dividend Yield

    Business First Bancshares pays a meaningful dividend of 2.37%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

  • Dividend Growth

    Business First Bancshares has only been increasing its dividend for 2 years.

  • Dividend Coverage

    The dividend payout ratio of Business First Bancshares is 22.31%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

  • Dividend Sustainability

    Based on earnings estimates, Business First Bancshares will have a dividend payout ratio of 18.92% next year. This indicates that Business First Bancshares will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' dividend.
  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    0.73% of the outstanding shares of Business First Bancshares have been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Business First Bancshares has recently decreased by 9.43%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.
  • News Sentiment

    Business First Bancshares has a news sentiment score of 1.18. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.81 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.
  • News Coverage This Week

    MarketBeat has tracked 2 news articles for Business First Bancshares this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week.
  • Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

    In the past three months, Business First Bancshares insiders have bought more of their company's stock than they have sold. Specifically, they have bought $52,554.00 in company stock and sold $0.00 in company stock.

  • Percentage Held by Insiders

    Only 5.68% of the stock of Business First Bancshares is held by insiders.

  • Percentage Held by Institutions

    47.35% of the stock of Business First Bancshares is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

  • Read more about Business First Bancshares' insider trading history.
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BFST Stock News Headlines

Gold surges past $3,600 … but this has beat gold by 1,000x
Gold has surged past $3,600 an ounce — up 45% in the past year — but one veteran metals analyst says the real opportunity isn’t in coins or bullion. In every major gold rally of the past 50 years, there’s been another investment that has delivered dramatically higher returns.tc pixel
See More Headlines

BFST Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

Business First Bancshares' stock was trading at $25.70 at the beginning of the year. Since then, BFST stock has decreased by 8.2% and is now trading at $23.60.

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July, 28th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $103.01 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $78.94 million. Business First Bancshares had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 11.21% and a net margin of 15.47%.
Read the conference call transcript
.

Shares of BFST stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Business First Bancshares investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Netflix (NFLX) and ServiceNow (NOW).

Company Calendar

Last Earnings
7/28/2025
Record date for 8/31 Dividend
8/15/2025
Ex-Dividend for 8/31 Dividend
8/15/2025
Dividend Payable
8/31/2025
Today
10/08/2025
Next Earnings (Estimated)
10/23/2025
Fiscal Year End
12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

Stock Exchange
NASDAQ
Sector
Finance
Industry
BANKS - NORTHEAST
Sub-Industry
Banking
Current Symbol
NASDAQ:BFST
CIK
1624322
Employees
750
Year Founded
N/A

Price Target and Rating

High Price Target
$33.00
Low Price Target
$28.00
Potential Upside/Downside
+30.3%
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy
Rating Score (0-4)
2.80
Research Coverage
5 Analysts

Profitability

EPS (Trailing Twelve Months)
$2.51
Trailing P/E Ratio
9.40
Forward P/E Ratio
8.68
P/E Growth
N/A
Net Income
$65.11 million
Net Margins
15.47%
Pretax Margin
19.67%
Return on Equity
11.21%
Return on Assets
1.06%

Debt

Debt-to-Equity Ratio
0.76
Current Ratio
1.02
Quick Ratio
1.02

Sales & Book Value

Annual Sales
$458.96 million
Price / Sales
1.52
Cash Flow
$2.57 per share
Price / Cash Flow
9.19
Book Value
$24.63 per share
Price / Book
0.96

Miscellaneous

Outstanding Shares
29,600,000
Free Float
27,922,000
Market Cap
$698.56 million
Optionable
Optionable
Beta
0.86
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This page (NASDAQ:BFST) was last updated on 10/9/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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