Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Raised to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) from an underweight rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $76.00 price objective on the stock, up from their prior price objective of $35.00.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Bread Financial from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.14.

Bread Financial Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of BFH stock opened at $61.42 on Thursday. Bread Financial has a 12 month low of $28.00 and a 12 month high of $66.71. The company has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a PE ratio of 9.78 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $57.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.64.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.86 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $983.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $981.26 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 6.37%. The business’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.46 EPS. Equities analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is 13.38%.

Insider Activity

In other Bread Financial news, Director John J. Fawcett bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $51.02 per share, for a total transaction of $51,020.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 6,473 shares in the company, valued at $330,252.46. This represents a 18.27 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BFH. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 33.5% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd raised its position in Bread Financial by 30.0% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 1,721 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Bread Financial by 70.3% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its position in Bread Financial by 164.0% in the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 2,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 1,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,000 after buying an additional 747 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

Bread Financial Company Profile

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.