NASDAQ:BFST Business First Bancshares (BFST) Stock Price, News & Analysis $30.81 -0.09 (-0.30%) As of 11:45 AM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more. Add Compare Share Share Stock Analysis Stock AnalysisAnalyst ForecastsChartCompetitorsDividendEarningsFinancialsInsider TradesNews and TrendsOptions ChainOwnershipSEC FilingsShort Interest About Business First Bancshares Stock (NASDAQ:BFST) View Price History Chart DataSkip Price History Chart 1 Day 5 Days 30 Days 90 Days 1 Year Advanced 1 Day 1 Day 5 Days 30 Days 90 Days 1 Year Advanced Show volume Show extended hours Get BFST alerts:Sign Up Key Stats Today's Range$30.74▼$31.0050-Day Range$30.09▼$32.2852-Week Range$22.56▼$32.53Volume39,559 shsAverage Volume205,946 shsMarket Capitalization$1.00 billionP/E Ratio10.93Dividend Yield1.95%Price Target$34.75Consensus RatingBuy Company Overview Business First Bancshares, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Through its principal subsidiary, b1BANK, the company provides a range of financial services to businesses, professionals and individual customers. b1BANK offers commercial and consumer lending, deposit accounts, treasury and cash-management services, mortgage lending, private banking and wealth-management solutions. Its lending activities include commercial real estate, commercial and industrial, residential real estate and consumer loans. Founded in 2006, Business First Bancshares has expanded its banking operations across Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The company serves customers through a network of banking locations and digital banking services, with an emphasis on relationship-based commercial banking. Jude Melville serves as president and chief executive officer.AI Generated. May Contain Errors. Read More Business First Bancshares Stock Analysis - MarketRank™See Top-Rated MarketRank™ Stocks84th Percentile Overall ScoreBFST MarketRank™: Business First Bancshares scored higher than 84% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 236th out of 839 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation. Analyst's Opinion3.3 / 5Analyst RatingBuy Consensus RatingBusiness First Bancshares has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 5 buy ratings, no hold ratings, and no sell ratings.Upside PotentialBusiness First Bancshares has a consensus price target of $34.75, representing about 12.5% upside from its current price of $30.90.Amount of Analyst CoverageBusiness First Bancshares has only been the subject of 4 research reports in the past 90 days.Read more about Business First Bancshares' stock forecast and price target. Earnings and Valuation2.5 / 5Proj. Earnings Growth8.33% Earnings GrowthEarnings for Business First Bancshares are expected to grow by 8.33% in the coming year, from $3.00 to $3.25 per share.Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the MarketThe P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 10.96, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.66.Price to Earnings Ratio vs. SectorThe P/E ratio of Business First Bancshares is 10.96, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 24.39.Price to Book Value per Share RatioBusiness First Bancshares has a P/B Ratio of 1.11. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.Read more about Business First Bancshares' valuation and earnings. Short Interest2.0 / 5Short Interest LevelBearish Percentage of Shares Shorted3.62% of the float of Business First Bancshares has been sold short.Short Interest Ratio / Days to CoverBusiness First Bancshares has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 5.82.Change versus previous monthShort interest in Business First Bancshares has recently increased by 9.57%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly. Dividend2.5 / 5Dividend StrengthModerate Dividend YieldBusiness First Bancshares pays a meaningful dividend of 1.94%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.Dividend GrowthBusiness First Bancshares has only been increasing its dividend for 2 years.Dividend CoverageThe dividend payout ratio of Business First Bancshares is 21.28%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.Dividend SustainabilityBased on earnings estimates, Business First Bancshares will have a dividend payout ratio of 18.46% next year. This indicates that Business First Bancshares will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.Read more about Business First Bancshares' dividend. News and Social Media2.4 / 5News Sentiment0.84 News SentimentBusiness First Bancshares has a news sentiment score of 0.84. 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 0.60 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.News Coverage This WeekMarketBeat has tracked 2 news articles for Business First Bancshares this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week. Company Ownership2.2 / 5Insider TradingSelling Shares Insider Buying vs. Insider SellingIn the past three months, Business First Bancshares insiders have sold 4,134.26% more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $47,415.00 in company stock and sold $2,007,675.00 in company stock.Percentage Held by Insiders5.67% of the stock of Business First Bancshares is held by insiders.Percentage Held by Institutions47.35% 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. Receive BFST Stock News and Ratings via Email Sign-up to receive the latest news and ratings for Business First Bancshares and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter. Submit View SMS TermsSMS is currently available in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 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Your first trade (Ticker included) -INSIDETired of trying tactic after tactic when it comes to options trades... only to be met with market noise and stinging losses? Dave Aquino is giving away the exact 11-hour options strategy he uses in volatile markets. You get the plain English blueprint behind the strategy and the very same "rinse and repeat" ticker he's traded nearly 900 times with a 95.3% success rate. It's so simple to understand, you could trade it tomorrow.October 5 at 1:00 AM | Base Camp Trading (Ad)Regional Bank Director Liquidates 3,235 Shares, Valued at $102,873August 31, 2026 | fool.comWhat This Business First Insider Sale Signals After a 34% Stock RunAugust 2, 2026 | fool.comBusiness First Bancshares Inc (BFST) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Loan Production ...July 24, 2026 | finance.yahoo.comBusiness First Bancshares Q2 2026 EarningsJuly 24, 2026 | 247wallst.comBusiness First Bancshares, Inc. (BFST) Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 23, 2026 | seekingalpha.comSee More Headlines BFST Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions How have BFST shares performed this year? Business First Bancshares' stock was trading at $26.14 at the start of the year. Since then, BFST stock has increased by 18.2% and is now trading at $30.90. How were Business First Bancshares' earnings last quarter? Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July, 23rd. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $91.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $91.31 million. Business First Bancshares had a net margin of 17.07% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 11.03%. Read the conference call transcript. How will Business First Bancshares' stock buyback program work? Business First Bancshares' board authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 28th 2025, which allows the company to buy back $30,000,000 in outstanding shares, according to EventVestor. This means that the company could buy up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued. How do I buy shares of Business First Bancshares? 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. What other stocks do shareholders of Business First Bancshares own? 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 Earnings7/23/2026Ex-Dividend for 8/31 Dividend8/14/2026Record date for 8/31 Dividend8/15/2026Dividend Payable8/31/2026Today10/05/2026Next Earnings (Estimated)10/26/2026Fiscal Year End12/31/2026Get Stock Alerts Health Indicator TradeSmith's Health IndicatorA long-term volatility-based measure designed for securities held 12 months or longer.Green: Strong and healthy uptrend with normal pullbacks.Yellow: Significant pullback but still within expected volatility.Red: Dropped beyond expected volatility; considered unhealthy. Green Zone (9m+) 1-Year History Oct 25 Jan 26 Apr 26 Jul 26 Oct 26 BFST's financial health is in the Green zone, according to TradeSmith. BFST has been in this zone for over 9 months. Industry, Sector and Symbol Stock ExchangeNASDAQ SectorFinance Industry Banks Sub-IndustryRegional Banks Current SymbolNASDAQ:BFST CIK1624322 Webwww.b1bank.com Phone(225) 248-7600Fax225-248-7650Employees842Year FoundedN/APrice Target and Rating Average Price Target for Business First Bancshares$34.75 High Price Target$37.00 Low Price Target$31.00 Potential Upside/Downside+12.6%Consensus RatingBuy Rating Score (0-4)3.00 Research Coverage5 Analysts Profitability EPS (Trailing Twelve Months)$2.82 Trailing P/E Ratio10.94 Forward P/E Ratio10.29 P/E GrowthN/ANet Income$87.86 million Net Margins17.07% Pretax Margin21.67% Return on Equity11.03% Return on Assets1.13% Debt Debt-to-Equity Ratio0.60 Current Ratio1.01 Quick Ratio1.01 Sales & Book Value Annual Sales$516.55 million Price / Sales1.94 Cash Flow$3.14 per share Price / Cash Flow9.83 Book Value$27.86 per share Price / Book1.11Miscellaneous Outstanding Shares32,550,000Free Float30,704,000Market Cap$1.00 billion OptionableOptionable Beta0.78 7 Stocks to Buy Before the Robotics RevolutionRobotics and automation are rapidly becoming essential infrastructure across healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and many other industries. 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