Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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And in my comments at the beginning, I outlined some of the successes that we’ve had, and we’ve done so through a combination of organic M&A growth, and we’d expect that, that would continue.

Feddie Strickland: And just one last clarifying question. I think you may have already answered this, but I just want to make sure I got it right. Overall, we should see the margin grow if we only get a handful of rate cuts just simply because of this repricing opportunity that you laid out in the deck and potentially the opportunity that some of the other analysts have discussed with the liability side, it seems like the margin should have some level of tailwind in future quarters. Is that fair?

Jude Melville: I think that’s fair. We think it should incrementally grow as the year progresses even if we get a couple of cuts.

Matthew Sealy: Feddie, I would just add to that, too, as Greg mentioned in his prepared remarks, we’ve worked pretty hard over the last six months or so, to move more and more to an interest rate neutral position by moving the right-hand side of the balance sheet, the liability side to be a little bit more rate sensitive there. So assuming a rate cut scenario, I think we’re better positioned now to at least hold — maybe pick up a little bit in a down rate environment, assuming we don’t get some dramatic shock of 100 bps or something like that.

Feddie Strickland: So the 25 basis point increments are probably more manageable too, because you can make incremental shifts over time, right?

Jude Melville: That’s right.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Matt Olney from Stephens Inc.

Matthew Olney : Sorry guys, my follow-up question was already addressed. Appreciate it, though.

Operator: We have no further questions in our queue at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Jude Melville for closing remarks.

Jude Melville: Good. Well, I’ll just close. Thanks, everybody, for joining us. And just want to express, I’m proud of our team and the work that we’ve done, not just over the past quarter or the past year, but over the past years. And I realize that these calls tend to focus more on expectations going forward, which we’re — we certainly spent much of our time doing that. But also want to speak to our investors and our teammates to just again highlight the fact that — or highlight the growth that we’ve experienced and I don’t mean growth just in terms of assets, but growth in terms of capabilities and profitability and managerial experience and all the things that when we went public in 2018, that we said we would we do and work on, have essentially come to fruition.

And so we’re proud of that record. And excited about seeing how we can continue to build upon that track record. So thank you for being with us, and thank you for the investment and look forward to talking to you next quarter.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

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