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

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 3,740,000 shares, an increase of 77.3% from the February 13th total of 2,110,000 shares. Currently, 7.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 746,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Bread Financial from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bread Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.69.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Bread Financial stock traded up $1.85 on Friday, reaching $49.40. 915,919 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 793,655. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $58.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.56. The firm has a market capitalization 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 has a twelve month low of $32.10 and a twelve month high of $66.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

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

Bread Financial declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, March 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.14%.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Bread Financial by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,848,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $357,109,000 after purchasing an additional 36,057 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Bread Financial by 2.1% during the third 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. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Bread Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $104,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Bread Financial by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,452,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,299,000 after acquiring an additional 13,679 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,382,135 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,393,000 after acquiring an additional 88,081 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

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.