BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Business First Bancshares, Inc. (BFST) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $15.8 million.

The bank, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said it had earnings of 57 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 66 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 60 cents per share.

The company posted revenue of $101.1 million in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $60.2 million, which fell short of Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $63.4 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $71 million, or $2.59 per share. Revenue was reported as $251.8 million.

Business First shares have declined 5% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $23.40, a rise of 10% in the last 12 months.

_____

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BFST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BFST

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, STATS Perform dba Automated Insights. , source Associated Press News