Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) Price Target Cut to $28.00 by Analysts at Raymond James

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Raymond James from $30.00 to $28.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Raymond James’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 23.19% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Hovde Group raised Business First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $31.50 to $33.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th.

Business First Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of BFST opened at $22.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $672.17 million, a PE ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 0.75. Business First Bancshares has a 1-year low of $18.97 and a 1-year high of $30.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.89.

Business First Bancshares (NASDAQ:BFST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.04. Business First Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.88% and a net margin of 14.19%. The business had revenue of $79.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $77.54 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Business First Bancshares will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Business First Bancshares

In other Business First Bancshares news, Director Rick D. Day purchased 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.46 per share, with a total value of $38,190.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 264,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,728,696.10. This trade represents a 0.57 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 6.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Business First Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Business First Bancshares by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,618,636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,599,000 after acquiring an additional 245,491 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 798,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,512,000 after purchasing an additional 83,664 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 111.1% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 623,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,023,000 after purchasing an additional 328,189 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Business First Bancshares by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 607,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,624,000 after purchasing an additional 46,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Business First Bancshares by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 538,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,837,000 after purchasing an additional 88,546 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 47.35% of the company’s stock.

About Business First Bancshares

Business First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for b1BANK that provides various banking products and services in Louisiana and Texas. It offers various deposit products and services, including checking, demand, money market, time, and savings accounts; and certificates of deposits, remote deposit capture, and direct deposit services.