Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. $BFH Shares Acquired by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) by 4.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,555,968 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,223 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 3.41% of Bread Financial worth $86,776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Bread Financial by 241.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 537,656 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,711,000 after purchasing an additional 380,039 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $36,889,000 after buying an additional 376,920 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 44.5% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 943,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,628,000 after buying an additional 290,803 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bread Financial in the second quarter worth approximately $16,599,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 16.9% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,720,613 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,281,000 after acquiring an additional 248,401 shares during the period. 99.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of BFH stock opened at $72.76 on Wednesday. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $38.21 and a fifty-two week high of $82.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $74.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.71, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.20.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $1.67. The business had revenue of $975.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $954.74 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 11.02%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. Analysts predict that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.49%.

Bread Financial declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $600.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 19% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on BFH. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Barclays increased their target price on Bread Financial from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered Bread Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Bread Financial from $82.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.09.

Bread Financial Company Profile

Bread Financial, formerly known as Alliance Data Systems, is a Columbus, Ohio–based financial services company that specializes in providing private label credit programs, co-brand credit cards and digital payment solutions for retail partners. The company designs, issues and services proprietary credit products, enabling merchants to offer branded financing options that drive customer loyalty and increase basket sizes at the point of sale. Through its Bread technology platform, Bread Financial delivers installment-based payment options that integrate directly into e-commerce and in-store checkout experiences.

In addition to its core credit offerings, Bread Financial provides analytics, marketing and loyalty services to help merchants better understand consumer behavior and optimize promotional strategies.