Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) Given New $46.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $42.00 to $46.00 in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the stock.

BHF has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Brighthouse Financial from $57.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Brighthouse Financial from $63.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Brighthouse Financial in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Brighthouse Financial from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Brighthouse Financial from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.89.

Brighthouse Financial Trading Down 4.8%

BHF opened at $48.61 on Tuesday. Brighthouse Financial has a twelve month low of $42.07 and a twelve month high of $64.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 0.86.

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $3.43 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.70 by ($1.27). Brighthouse Financial had a return on equity of 21.06% and a net margin of 10.24%.The firm had revenue of $2.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Brighthouse Financial will post 20.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BHF. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Brighthouse Financial by 6,338.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 118,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,843,000 after buying an additional 116,177 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Brighthouse Financial by 101.7% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Brighthouse Financial by 24.7% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 21,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,259,000 after buying an additional 4,295 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Brighthouse Financial by 1,764.2% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 121,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,030,000 after purchasing an additional 114,726 shares during the period. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Brighthouse Financial during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $285,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.24% of the company’s stock.

Brighthouse Financial Company Profile

Brighthouse Financial, Inc provides annuity and life insurance products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Annuities, Life, and Run-off. The Annuities segment consists of variable, fixed, index-linked, and income annuities for contract holders’ needs for protected wealth accumulation on a tax-deferred basis, wealth transfer, and income security.