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

Business First Bancshares logo
$26.48 +1.19 (+4.69%)
As of 09:30 AM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

About Business First Bancshares Stock (NASDAQ:BFST)

Key Stats

Today's Range
$25.18
$25.58
50-Day Range
$22.92
$26.38
52-Week Range
$20.07
$30.30
Volume
77,062 shs
Average Volume
97,908 shs
Market Capitalization
$783.66 million
P/E Ratio
10.55
Dividend Yield
2.12%
Price Target
$30.75
Consensus Rating
Buy

Company Overview

Business First Bancshares Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

See Top-Rated MarketRank™ Stocks
90th Percentile Overall Score

BFST MarketRank™: 

Business First Bancshares scored higher than 90% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 159th out of 934 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 Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on 4 buy ratings, no hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

  • 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 10.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 28.62.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

    The P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 10.12, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 19.45.

  • Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

    Business First Bancshares has a P/B Ratio of 0.97. 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

    0.83% of the float of Business First Bancshares has been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.3, 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 6.12%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.
  • Dividend Yield

    Business First Bancshares pays a meaningful dividend of 2.21%, 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

    0.83% of the float of Business First Bancshares has been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Business First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.3, 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 6.12%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.
  • News Sentiment

    Business First Bancshares has a news sentiment score of 1.76. 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 1.17 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.
  • News Coverage This Week

    MarketBeat has tracked 4 news articles for Business First Bancshares this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week.
  • Search Interest

    1 people have searched for BFST on MarketBeat in the last 30 days.
  • Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

    In the past three months, Business First Bancshares insiders have bought 165.78% more of their company's stock than they have sold. Specifically, they have bought $68,466.00 in company stock and sold $25,760.00 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

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See More Headlines

BFST Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

Business First Bancshares' stock was trading at $25.70 at the beginning of 2025. Since then, BFST stock has decreased by 1.1% and is now trading at $25.41.

Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July, 28th. The company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $103.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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
.

Business First Bancshares' top institutional investors include Geode Capital Management LLC (2.36%), American Century Companies Inc. (2.19%), The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (1.52%) and Ranger Investment Management L.P. (1.16%). Insiders that own company stock include Rick D Day, Joseph Vernon Johnson, Rolfe H Jr Mccollister, Greg Robertson, Kenneth W Smith, James J Buquet III, Andrew D Mclindon, Jesse Jackson, Warren Mcdonald, John P Ducrest, Steven Gerard White, Kathryn Manning and Saundra Strong.
View institutional ownership trends
.

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

Record date for 5/31 Dividend
5/15/2025
Ex-Dividend for 5/31 Dividend
5/15/2025
Dividend Payable
5/31/2025
Last Earnings
7/28/2025
Record date for 8/31 Dividend
8/15/2025
Ex-Dividend for 8/31 Dividend
8/15/2025
Today
8/28/2025
Dividend Payable
8/31/2025
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
+16.1%
Consensus Rating
Buy
Rating Score (0-4)
3.00
Research Coverage
4 Analysts

Profitability

EPS (Trailing Twelve Months)
$2.51
Trailing P/E Ratio
10.55
Forward P/E Ratio
9.73
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
1.71
Cash Flow
$2.70 per share
Price / Cash Flow
9.82
Book Value
$26.23 per share
Price / Book
1.01

Miscellaneous

Outstanding Shares
29,600,000
Free Float
27,922,000
Market Cap
$783.66 million
Optionable
Optionable
Beta
0.85
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This page (NASDAQ:BFST) was last updated on 8/28/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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