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

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,750,000 shares, a drop of 20.8% from the December 15th total of 2,210,000 shares. Approximately 3.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 691,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of 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 shares of Bread Financial from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.14.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BFH traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $60.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 466,803 shares, compared to its average volume of 533,770. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.19. Bread Financial has a 1-year low of $28.00 and a 1-year high of $66.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $60.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $54.31. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 1.94.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.86 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $983.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $981.26 million. Bread Financial had a net margin of 6.37% and a return on equity of 13.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is 13.38%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director John J. Fawcett acquired 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $51.02 per share, for a total transaction of $51,020.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $330,252.46. This trade represents a 18.27 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bread Financial

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BFH. Millennium Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $65,245,000 after buying an additional 657,968 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 390,413 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 260,283 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Bread Financial by 38.2% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 880,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,910,000 after purchasing an additional 243,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Bread Financial by 131.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 258,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,516,000 after purchasing an additional 146,900 shares during the period. 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.