Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Upgraded to “In-Line” at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) from an underperform rating to an in-line rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $45.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $42.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on BFH. BMO Capital Markets upped 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 report on Friday, April 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an outperform rating and set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Monday. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They set a neutral rating for the company. Argus cut shares of Bread Financial from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $40.92.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

BFH opened at $44.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.41. Bread Financial has a 1 year low of $26.08 and a 1 year high of $44.56. The stock has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.94.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.92 by ($0.19). Bread Financial had a net margin of 8.08% and a return on equity of 14.44%. The firm had revenue of $991.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $998.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 23.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bread Financial will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 9th. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.58%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Denali Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 46.8% in the fourth quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 153,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,053,000 after purchasing an additional 48,900 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 807,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,601,000 after purchasing an additional 99,029 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 528,003 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,392,000 after purchasing an additional 50,474 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 672,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,140,000 after purchasing an additional 37,005 shares during the period. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 392,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,921,000 after purchasing an additional 65,450 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

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.