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Business First Bancshares (BFST) Competitors

Business First Bancshares logo
$25.43 -0.23 (-0.90%)
As of 01:42 PM Eastern
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BFST vs. ABCB, BANR, BUSE, FMBH, FRME, OBK, PPBI, STBA, BY, and PFS

Should you be buying Business First Bancshares stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Business First Bancshares include Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), Banner (BANR), First Busey (BUSE), First Mid Bancshares (FMBH), First Merchants (FRME), Origin Bancorp (OBK), Pacific Premier Bancorp (PPBI), S&T Bancorp (STBA), Byline Bancorp (BY), and Provident Financial Services (PFS). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.

Business First Bancshares vs. Its Competitors

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) and Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Business First Bancshares currently has a consensus target price of $30.50, indicating a potential upside of 19.94%. Ameris Bancorp has a consensus target price of $71.43, indicating a potential upside of 8.02%. Given Business First Bancshares' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Business First Bancshares is more favorable than Ameris Bancorp.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Business First Bancshares
0 Sell rating(s)
0 Hold rating(s)
4 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
3.00
Ameris Bancorp
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.86

Ameris Bancorp has a net margin of 21.46% compared to Business First Bancshares' net margin of 15.00%. Business First Bancshares' return on equity of 11.49% beat Ameris Bancorp's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Business First Bancshares15.00% 11.49% 1.06%
Ameris Bancorp 21.46%9.57%1.32%

Ameris Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Business First Bancshares. Business First Bancshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ameris Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Business First Bancshares$458.96M1.65$65.11M$2.4310.47
Ameris Bancorp$1.12B4.06$358.68M$5.4012.25

Business First Bancshares pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Ameris Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Business First Bancshares pays out 23.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ameris Bancorp pays out 14.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Business First Bancshares has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Business First Bancshares is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

In the previous week, Ameris Bancorp had 3 more articles in the media than Business First Bancshares. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Ameris Bancorp and 3 mentions for Business First Bancshares. Ameris Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Business First Bancshares' score of 1.20 indicating that Ameris Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Business First Bancshares
1 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Ameris Bancorp
5 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Business First Bancshares has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ameris Bancorp has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

47.4% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 5.7% of Business First Bancshares shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of Ameris Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Ameris Bancorp beats Business First Bancshares on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

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.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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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BFST vs. The Competition

MetricBusiness First BancsharesBANKS IndustryFinance SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$755.61M$863.19M$12.29B$9.52B
Dividend Yield2.14%3.09%5.53%3.99%
P/E Ratio10.4716.9019.0520.01
Price / Sales1.652.4226.42102.39
Price / Cash10.1848.9821.8458.97
Price / Book1.031.112.275.87
Net Income$65.11M$54.19M$998.01M$258.50M
7 Day Performance-3.27%-0.93%0.75%1.95%
1 Month Performance6.05%4.83%4.21%12.31%
1 Year Performance0.83%9.82%540.65%19.02%

Business First Bancshares Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
BFST
Business First Bancshares
3.9001 of 5 stars
$25.43
-0.9%
$30.50
+19.9%
+4.0%$755.61M$458.96M10.47750Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
ABCB
Ameris Bancorp
3.7756 of 5 stars
$67.01
+0.5%
$71.43
+6.6%
+10.2%$4.62B$1.12B12.862,850Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
BANR
Banner
2.7989 of 5 stars
$65.28
-1.0%
$70.17
+7.5%
+8.5%$2.28B$832.99M12.431,956Dividend Announcement
BUSE
First Busey
4.8991 of 5 stars
$24.16
+0.1%
$27.67
+14.5%
-14.7%$2.16B$663.36M22.581,548Trending News
Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
FMBH
First Mid Bancshares
3.6181 of 5 stars
$38.90
+0.2%
$43.83
+12.7%
+1.0%$931.49M$453.67M11.581,198News Coverage
Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Dividend Increase
FRME
First Merchants
4.7234 of 5 stars
$41.50
+1.5%
$46.40
+11.8%
+0.3%$2.38B$1.07B11.662,120News Coverage
Positive News
Earnings Report
High Trading Volume
OBK
Origin Bancorp
3.4508 of 5 stars
$37.73
-0.3%
$42.20
+11.8%
+3.6%$1.18B$358.20M15.341,010News Coverage
Positive News
Dividend Announcement
PPBI
Pacific Premier Bancorp
3.7201 of 5 stars
$22.14
+0.9%
$27.25
+23.1%
-20.3%$2.13B$905.41M14.571,325News Coverage
Positive News
Earnings Report
STBA
S&T Bancorp
3.7978 of 5 stars
$38.72
-0.6%
$42.00
+8.5%
-12.9%$1.49B$564.96M11.161,206Trending News
Earnings Report
BY
Byline Bancorp
3.7545 of 5 stars
$27.94
+0.5%
$33.25
+19.0%
-4.3%$1.28B$624.78M10.351,027News Coverage
Earnings Report
PFS
Provident Financial Services
3.7423 of 5 stars
$18.37
-0.2%
$23.60
+28.5%
+1.6%$2.40B$1.14B16.551,801News Coverage
Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast

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This page (NASDAQ:BFST) was last updated on 7/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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