Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) from an underweight rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $76.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $35.00.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Bread Financial from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Bread Financial from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bread Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.14.

Bread Financial Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of BFH opened at $62.76 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.12 billion, a PE ratio of 9.99 and a beta of 1.96. Bread Financial has a 12-month low of $28.00 and a 12-month high of $66.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $983.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $981.26 million. Bread Financial had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 13.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Bread Financial will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 13.38%.

Insider Activity

In other Bread Financial news, Director John J. Fawcett purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $51.02 per share, with a total value of $51,020.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 6,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $330,252.46. The trade was a 18.27 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BFH. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Bread Financial during the 3rd quarter worth about $810,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Bread Financial by 2.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,173,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,386,000 after acquiring an additional 70,092 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Bread Financial by 22.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,161,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,754,000 after purchasing an additional 212,276 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Bread Financial by 152.9% in the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 645,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,772,000 after purchasing an additional 390,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new position in shares of Bread Financial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $576,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.