Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Upgraded to “Outperform” by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has $67.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $38.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and set a $36.00 price target on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Friday, January 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Bread Financial from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI downgraded Bread Financial from an in-line rating to an underperform rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $29.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Bread Financial from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $39.17.

Bread Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BFH opened at $40.81 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.92. Bread Financial has a twelve month low of $23.19 and a twelve month high of $41.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.34.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.92 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $991.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $998.96 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 8.08%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 23.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $9.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bread Financial will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.06%. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.58%.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 33.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,055,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,090,000 after acquiring an additional 265,060 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Bread Financial by 5.3% in the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 75,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,599,000 after purchasing an additional 3,840 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in Bread Financial by 23.1% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,903 shares during the period. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Bread Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at $365,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Bread Financial by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 22,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $770,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares during the period. 99.52% of the stock is currently owned by 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.