Wall Street Zen Downgrades Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) to Buy

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on BFH. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Bread Financial from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. BTIG Research set a $105.00 target price on Bread Financial and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Bread Financial from $65.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $52.00 target price (up previously from $45.00) on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.42.

Bread Financial Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE BFH opened at $58.14 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.84, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.42. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.32. Bread Financial has a 52 week low of $38.21 and a 52 week high of $66.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $3.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $1.29. The business had revenue of $929.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $944.69 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 13.10% and a net margin of 6.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Bread Financial will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bread Financial

In other Bread Financial news, Director John J. Fawcett acquired 1,027 shares of Bread Financial stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $61.79 per share, with a total value of $63,458.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $636,560.58. The trade was a 11.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BFH. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bread Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $104,000. Curat Global LLC raised its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 81,068.5% in the second quarter. Curat Global LLC now owns 450,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,732,000 after purchasing an additional 449,930 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 45.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,320,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,127,000 after purchasing an additional 409,877 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Bread Financial by 550.8% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 462,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,228,000 after acquiring an additional 391,272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Bread Financial by 104.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 736,604 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,889,000 after acquiring an additional 376,920 shares in the last quarter. 99.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.