Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Sells 9,874 Shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 720,657 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,874 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 1.45% of Bread Financial worth $44,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 30.2% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,121,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,353,000 after purchasing an additional 260,283 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in Bread Financial by 38.2% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 880,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,910,000 after acquiring an additional 243,419 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Bread Financial by 44.5% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 474,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,983,000 after acquiring an additional 146,244 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Bread Financial during the third quarter valued at $6,001,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Bread Financial during the third quarter valued at $4,276,000. 99.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BFH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $35.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bread Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.69.

Bread Financial Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of NYSE BFH opened at $49.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.15. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $58.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.56. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.10 and a fifty-two week high of $66.71. The company has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.90, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.96.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last issued its quarterly 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued 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 currently 15.14%.

Bread Financial declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, March 5th that permits the company to buyback $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bread Financial Company 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.