Business
Business First Bancshares, Inc., Announces Financial Results for Fiscal Year 2019 and Q4 2019
BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: BFST) (Business First), parent company of b1BANK, Baton Rouge,
About this update from Business First Bancshares, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: BFST) (Business First), parent company of b1BANK, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, today announced its unaudited results for the year ended December 31, 2019, including net income of $23.8 million, or $1.74 per diluted share, increases of $9.7 million and $0.52, respectively, from the prior year. Core net income for the year ended December 31, 2019, which excludes noncore income and expenses, was $24.6 million, or $1.80 per diluted share, which reflects increases of $7.8 million and $0.35, respectively, from the prior year. \n “2019 was a year of successful transition for our company,” said Jude Melville, president and CEO. “We rebranded, we opened new locations in growth markets, we solidified relationships from our two most recent acquisitions and we increased core earnings per share year-over-year by almost 25%, while growing organically at a healthy, well capitalized rate and maintaining sound asset quality. I really couldn’t have asked for more from our team over the past year and we take the field just as excited about our opportunities in 2020 as we are celebratory of the year we had in 2019.” On January 22, 2020, Business First’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend based upon financial performance for the fourth quarter in the amount of $0.10 per share, same as the prior quarter, to the common shareholders of record as of February 15, 2020. The dividend will be paid on February 28, 2020, or as soon thereafter as practicable. Quarterly Highlights Improved Credit Quality. Ratios of nonperforming loans compared to loans held for investment and nonperforming assets compared to total assets decreased from 0.70% and 0.64%, respectively, at September 30, 2019, to 0.53% and 0.58% at December 31, 2019. Nonperforming assets for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 were impacted by $566,000 in write-downs on other real estate owned properties; however, excluding this impact, credit quality still improved compared to prior quarter.Loan Growth. Total loans held for investment at December 31, 2019, were $1.7 billion, an increase of $15.5 million compared to September 30, 2019. Loan growth was 3.7% (annualized) for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, and 11.9% for year ended December 31, 2019. Loan growth for the quarter was tempered due to...