Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stake in Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 241,087 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,888 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.48% of Bread Financial worth $14,721,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,034,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,804,000 after buying an additional 41,012 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,012,000 after buying an additional 13,459 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 30.2% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,121,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,353,000 after buying an additional 260,283 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 38.2% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 880,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,910,000 after buying an additional 243,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 1.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 730,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,759,000 after buying an additional 13,484 shares during the last quarter. 99.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BFH has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Compass Point lifted their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $75.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.69.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BFH opened at $53.74 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.37 and a 200 day moving average of $56.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.93. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.10 and a 12-month high of $66.71.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.07. Bread Financial had a net margin of 5.75% and a return on equity of 12.41%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is currently 15.14%.

Bread Financial Profile

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.