Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFST) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2023 5:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Matt Sealy - SVP and Director, Corporate Strategy

Jude Melville - President, CEO & Director

Greg Robertson - Executive VP, CFO & Treasurer

Philip Jordan - Executive VP & Chief Banking Officer

Conference Call Participants

Michael Rose - Raymond James

Brett Rabatin - Hovde Group

Kevin Fitzsimmons - D.A. Davidson

Feddie Strickland - Janney Montgomery Scott

Graham Dick - Piper Sandler

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to the Business First Bancshares' Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to now turn the call over to Matt Sealy, Director of Corporate Strategy and FTNA. [Operator Instructions]

Matt Sealy, you may begin your conference.

Matt Sealy

Good afternoon and thank you all for joining. Earlier today, we issued our second quarter 2023 earnings press release, a copy of which is available on our website, along with the slide presentation that we will reference during today's call.

Please refer to Slide 3 of our presentation, which includes our safe harbor statements regarding forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. For those of you joining by phone, please note the slide presentation is available on our website at www.b1bank.com.

Please also note our safe harbor statements are available on Page 7 of our earnings press release that we filed with the SEC today. All comments made during today's call are subject to the safe harbor statements in our slide presentation and earnings release.

I'm joined this afternoon by Business First Bancshares’ President and CEO, Jude Melville, Chief Financial Officer, Greg Robertson; Chief Banking Officer, Philip Jordan; and Chief Administrative Officer, Jerry Vascocu. After the presentation, we'll be happy to address any questions you may have.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to you, Jude.

Jude Melville

Okay, thanks, Matt. And thank you, everybody for joining us. I know it's a busy time and we appreciate you prioritizing this conversation. Last quarter I began by discussing our longer-term objectives to give some context to our near-term results. And while I won't take as much time to review the specific long term goals on this call, I do want to take a moment to remind us of what those general priorities are. Our management of risk through diversification as geographical, industry, product set, duration and revenue streams among others. Our number two achievement of greater efficiency and optionality through scaling. Number three, an increasing core profitability levels through a focus on capital allocation and management. Finally, a qualitative rather than quantitative goal to continue selective additions when available of key teammates with experience and talent to help us prepare for the opportunities that will present themselves as we gain success from the previous fully mentioned three more numerical priorities.