Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,360,000 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the August 15th total of 3,600,000 shares. Approximately 6.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 950,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 81.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,464,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,245,000 after purchasing an additional 657,968 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bread Financial during the fourth quarter worth $14,365,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 152.9% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 645,689 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,772,000 after buying an additional 390,413 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,000,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,823,000 after acquiring an additional 256,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 86.2% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 485,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,066,000 after acquiring an additional 224,545 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BFH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Bread Financial in a report on Monday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Bread Financial from $40.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Bread Financial from $44.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Bread Financial stock opened at $53.06 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $52.28 and a 200-day moving average of $43.96. The company has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a PE ratio of 6.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 1.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Bread Financial has a 1-year low of $26.08 and a 1-year high of $59.66.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $1.06. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 16.24% and a net margin of 9.77%. The firm had revenue of $939.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $922.01 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.58%.

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.