Short Interest in BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:BAFN) Grows By 124.3%

BayFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:BAFN) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 16,011 shares, an increase of 124.3% from the February 26th total of 7,137 shares. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 12,671 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BayFirst Financial

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BAFN. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of BayFirst Financial by 46.5% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 23,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 7,369 shares in the last quarter. Salzhauer Michael grew its holdings in BayFirst Financial by 62.3% during the 3rd quarter. Salzhauer Michael now owns 68,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $720,000 after buying an additional 26,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banc Funds Co. LLC increased its stake in BayFirst Financial by 35.5% in the 3rd quarter. Banc Funds Co. LLC now owns 169,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,776,000 after acquiring an additional 44,500 shares during the last quarter. 16.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of BayFirst Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, BayFirst Financial has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

BayFirst Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BAFN opened at $6.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.06 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.07 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $6.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.77. BayFirst Financial has a fifty-two week low of $4.80 and a fifty-two week high of $18.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.01.

BayFirst Financial (NASDAQ:BAFN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The company reported ($0.69) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $5.96 million during the quarter. BayFirst Financial had a negative net margin of 20.99% and a negative return on equity of 26.38%.

About BayFirst Financial

BayFirst Financial Corp (NASDAQ: BAFN) is the bank holding company for BayFirst National Bank, which operates as a Florida-chartered community bank. The company provides a range of commercial banking services, catering to both business and individual customers in the Tampa Bay region. BayFirst Financial emphasizes relationship-driven banking, offering personalized solutions tailored to the needs of local clients.

The company’s product suite includes deposit accounts such as checking, savings, money market accounts and certificates of deposit.