Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on BFH. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Bread Financial in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $105.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded Bread Financial from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 price objective on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.08.

Bread Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BFH opened at $102.04 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $105.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. Bread Financial has a 52 week low of $53.83 and a 52 week high of $114.53. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.10.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $3.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.74 by $0.81. The firm had revenue of $993.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $959.32 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 18.42% and a net margin of 11.95%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.15 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bread Financial will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Praniti Lakhwara sold 2,802 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.12, for a total transaction of $297,348.24. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,458 shares in the company, valued at $473,082.96. The trade was a 38.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its position in shares of Bread Financial by 8.5% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 4,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $522,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Bread Financial in the second quarter valued at $303,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Bread Financial by 10,413.6% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 5,695,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,134,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641,568 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Bread Financial by 21.0% in the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,000 after purchasing an additional 622 shares during the period. Finally, denkapparat Operations GmbH acquired a new stake in Bread Financial during the second quarter worth $213,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

Bread Financial Company Profile

Bread Financial, formerly known as Alliance Data Systems, is a Columbus, Ohio–based financial services company that specializes in providing private label credit programs, co-brand credit cards and digital payment solutions for retail partners. The company designs, issues and services proprietary credit products, enabling merchants to offer branded financing options that drive customer loyalty and increase basket sizes at the point of sale. Through its Bread technology platform, Bread Financial delivers installment-based payment options that integrate directly into e-commerce and in-store checkout experiences.

In addition to its core credit offerings, Bread Financial provides analytics, marketing and loyalty services to help merchants better understand consumer behavior and optimize promotional strategies.