Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $55.14.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America cut their price objective on Bread Financial from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Bread Financial Stock Down 3.5 %

BFH opened at $59.61 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.58. The company has a market capitalization of $2.96 billion, a PE ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.94. Bread Financial has a 1-year low of $28.00 and a 1-year high of $66.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86 by ($0.03). Bread Financial had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 6.37%. The company had revenue of $983.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $981.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.46 earnings per share. Bread Financial’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is 13.38%.

Insider Transactions at Bread Financial

In other Bread Financial news, Director John J. Fawcett acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $51.02 per share, for a total transaction of $51,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $330,252.46. This trade represents a 18.27 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BFH. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Bread Financial by 81.6% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,464,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,245,000 after acquiring an additional 657,968 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 152.9% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 645,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,772,000 after purchasing an additional 390,413 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,121,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,353,000 after purchasing an additional 260,283 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bread Financial by 38.2% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 880,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,910,000 after purchasing an additional 243,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 22.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,161,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,754,000 after buying an additional 212,276 shares during the period. 99.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Bread Financial

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc provides tech-forward payment and lending solutions to customers and consumer-based industries in North America. It offers credit card and other loans financing services, including risk management solutions, account origination, and funding services for private label and co-brand credit card programs, as well as through Bread partnerships; and Comenity-branded general purpose cash-back credit.