Business First Bancshares, Inc., Announces Financial Results for Q1 2025

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BATON ROUGE, La., April 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: BFST) (Business First), parent company of b1BANK, today announced its unaudited results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. Business First reported net income available to common shareholders of $19.2 million or $0.65 per diluted common share, increases of $4.1 million and $0.14, respectively, compared to the linked quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024. On a non-GAAP basis, core net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, which excludes certain income and expenses, was $19.3 million or $0.65 per diluted common share, a decrease of $0.2 million and $0.01, from the linked quarter.

“We are excited to start the year off with solid earnings,” said Jude Melville, chairman, president and CEO of Business First Bancshares. “We increased our capital, our reserves, and our per share tangible book value at healthy rates, while demonstrating diversity of our revenue streams and growth of margins in our core spread business. We are also proud of our less tangible development, continuing to integrate our latest acquisition and implementing a number of technological initiatives including preparation for our core conversion in the second quarter, investments that will enable us to provide high quality and more efficient service for our client base into the future.”

On Thursday, April 24, 2025, Business First’s board of directors declared a quarterly preferred dividend in the amount of $18.75 per share, which is the full quarterly dividend of 1.875% based on the per annum rate of 7.50%. Additionally, the board of directors declared a quarterly common dividend based upon financial performance for the first quarter in the amount of $0.14 per share of common stock. The preferred and common dividends will be paid on May 31, 2025, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to the shareholders of record as of May 15, 2025.

Quarterly Highlights

  • Solid Core Performance. Return to common shareholders on average assets, on an annualized basis, was 1.00% for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, or 1.01% on a non-GAAP basis, compared to 0.78% or 1.00% on a non-GAAP basis for the linked quarter.

  • Net Interest Margin (NIM) Expansion. Net interest income totaled $66.0 million and net interest margin and net interest spread were 3.68% and 2.91%, respectively, compared to $65.7 million, 3.61% and 2.77% for the linked quarter. Non-GAAP net interest margin and net interest spread (excluding loan discount accretion of $0.8 million) were 3.64% and 2.86% for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, compared to 3.56% and 2.72% (excluding loan discount accretion of $1.0 million) for the linked quarter. The increases of 8 basis points (bps) and 14 bps were driven by a reduction in Business First's overall cost of funding.