BFC

Bank First is a conservatively run community bank with a clean balance sheet and a long operating history (the Bank was chartered in 1894). FY2025 was a solid year: net income rose 9.0% to $71.5M and diluted EPS grew 11.2% to $7.23, with retained earnings up 4.8% to $417M and continued buybacks ($22.0M). Capital is ample — $644M of equity against $4.51B of assets, and the 6.00x liabilities/equity ratio is unremarkable for a bank. Per the MD&A the franchise is funded by $3.70B of deposits against $3.60B of loans, a healthy ~97% loan-to-deposit mix that supports net interest income. This is a quality, low-drama operator.

The problem is what you pay for it. At $147.81 the stock trades at 20.4x trailing EPS while generating only an 11.1% ROE — a full multiple for a bank earning a mid-pack return on equity, and richer than where most community banks change hands. Growth is also flattering on the surface: total assets were essentially flat YoY (+0.2%), operating cash flow actually fell 5.1% to $62.5M, and the lumpy net-income history (the $74.5M FY2023 spike reflects the October 2023 sale of the UFS stake described in the MD&A) shows the core run-rate is closer to the high-$60Ms/low-$70Ms than a smooth compounder. Per-share EPS growth has been helped by repurchases, not by a growing asset base.