Business First (BFST) Now Trades Above Golden Cross: Time to Buy?

After reaching an important support level, Business First Bancshares, Inc. (BFST) could be a good stock pick from a technical perspective. BFST recently experienced a "golden cross" event, which saw its 50-day simple moving average breaking out above its 200-day simple moving average.

Considered an important signifier for a bullish breakout, a golden cross is a technical chart pattern that's formed when a stock's short-term moving average breaks above a longer-term moving average; the most common crossover involves the 50-day and the 200-day, since bigger time periods tend to form stronger breakouts.

A successful golden cross event has three stages. It first begins when a stock's price on the decline bottoms out. Then, its shorter moving average crosses above its longer moving average, triggering a positive trend reversal. The third and final phase occurs when the stock maintains its upward momentum.

A golden cross contrasts with a death cross, another widely-followed chart pattern that suggests bearish momentum could be on the horizon.

Over the past four weeks, BFST has gained 6.1%. The company currently sits at a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, also indicating that the stock could be poised for a breakout.

The bullish case only gets stronger once investors take into account BFST's positive earnings outlook for the current quarter. There have been 3 upward revisions compared to none lower over the past 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has moved up as well.

With a winning combination of earnings estimate revisions and hitting a key technical level, investors should keep their eye on BFST for more gains in the near future.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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