Truist Financial Corp Buys Shares of 3,705 Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH)

Truist Financial Corp bought a new stake in Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Bread Financial by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,034,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,804,000 after buying an additional 41,012 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Bread Financial by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,012,000 after acquiring an additional 13,459 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Bread Financial by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,121,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,353,000 after acquiring an additional 260,283 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Bread Financial by 38.2% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 880,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,910,000 after acquiring an additional 243,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Bread Financial by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 730,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,759,000 after acquiring an additional 13,484 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BFH. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bread Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.69.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of BFH stock opened at $49.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.10 and a fifty-two week high of $66.71. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.87. The firm has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.88, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.96.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.07. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 12.41% and a net margin of 5.75%. Analysts predict that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, March 5th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is 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.