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Business First Bancshares Inc

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 and savings, time, and money market accounts; and certificates of deposits, remote deposit capture, and direct deposit services. The company also provides commercial and industrial loans, such as working capital, term, equipment financing, asset acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, and other loan products, as well as commercial lines of credit, accounts receivable factoring, agricultural financing, and letters of credit; construction and development loans; commercial real estate loans; residential real estate loans comprising first and second lien 1-4 family mortgage loans, and home equity lines of credit; and consumer loans, including secured and unsecured installment, and term loans. In addition, it offers wealth management products, including mutual funds, annuities, individual retirement accounts, and other financial products, as well as other fiduciary and private banking products and services. Further, the company provides a range of other financial services comprising debit and credit cards, treasury and cash management, merchant, automated clearing house, lock-box, receivables factoring, correspondent banking, and other treasury services, as well as employee and payroll benefits solutions; and drive-through banking facilities, automated teller machines, night depository, personalized checks, electronic funds transfer, domestic and foreign wire transfer, traveler's checks, vault, loan and deposit sweep accounts, interest-rate swaps, small business administration products, online and mobile banking, e-statements, and bank-by-mail services. Business First Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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News & notes moving BFST
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Business First COO Keith Mansfield Sells 4,200 Shares at $32.08

Keith Mansfield, executive vice president and chief operating officer of b1Bank, sold 4,200 shares of Business First Bancshares on July 30, 2026, at a weighted average price of $32.08, for a total transaction value of $134,736. Following the sale, Mansfield directly holds 77,139 shares, which includes 27,000 shares in an individual retirement account and 13,374 restricted stock units vesting through March 2029, leaving a meaningful portion of his equity tied to future service. The sale was executed at a narrow premium to the $31.94 market close on the transaction date. Business First Bancshares, the Baton Rouge-based holding company for b1Bank, has a market capitalization of $1 billion and reported trailing twelve-month net income of $93 million on revenue of $344 million. While the insider sale appears routine, the company saw a return to normalized loan production last quarter and financial services group revenue running about 20% ahead of the prior year at the halfway mark, though deposits fell 3.1% in the quarter on an annualized basis of 12.3%, driven by declines in commercial money market accounts and brokered deposits.
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Business First Bancshares Q2 2026 net income rises to $22.8 million

Business First Bancshares reported second-quarter 2026 net income available to common shareholders of $22.8 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, up from $22.2 million and $0.68 in the linked quarter. Net interest margin expanded 8 basis points to 3.73%, driven by higher loan yields and deposit cost management, while the company completed the sale of $100.3 million in lower-yielding acquired loans. The board declared a quarterly common dividend of $0.15 per share and a preferred dividend of $18.75 per share, both payable August 31. Tangible book value per common share rose to $23.61, and the ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans held for investment improved to 1.26% from 1.53% in the prior quarter.
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Business First Bancshares acquires American Planning to expand advisory services

Business First Bancshares has acquired American Planning Corporation, a financial consulting firm serving community banks since 1972, to expand its advisory services. American Planning CEO T. Jefferson Fair and his team will join Smith Shellnut Wilson, a b1BANK subsidiary, expanding its advisory platform. The deal adds services including outsourced CFO support, strategic and capital planning, asset/liability management, and regulatory consulting for community bank clients.
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Micro-Cap Stocks Offer a Contrarian Playground as Passive Indexing Starves the Broader Market of Liquidity

An exceptionally tight circle of mega-cap stocks dominates benchmark averages, with passive indexing funnelling trillions into the top of the S&P 500 and starving the broader equity landscape of liquidity. Rob Isbitts highlights the micro-cap space as a contrarian opportunity, noting the First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap Index Fund (FDM) has just $250 million in assets under management compared to the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) which is about 3,700 times larger. FDM focuses on the lowest market-cap deciles, filtering for value and liquidity metrics, and trades at under 13 times trailing earnings. Isbitts points to specific holdings with attractive charts, including Deluxe (DLX) at less than 7 times trailing earnings, Business First Bancshares (BFST) poised to benefit from lower interest rates, and LSI Industries (LYTS) which just broke out to a new high. He advises equal-weighted position sizes and shorter tactical horizons due to structurally thinner liquidity in micro-caps.
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