Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) Shares Sold by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,273 shares of the company’s stock after selling 235 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Bread Financial were worth $505,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BFH. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Bread Financial in the third quarter worth about $810,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,012,000 after purchasing an additional 13,459 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 15,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,977 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in Bread Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC boosted its holdings in Bread Financial by 87.9% during the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 38,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,832,000 after buying an additional 18,014 shares in the last quarter. 99.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BFH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays increased their price target on Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Bread Financial from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bread Financial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.69.

Bread Financial Trading Down 1.7 %

Bread Financial stock opened at $51.54 on Wednesday. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $32.10 and a one year high of $66.71. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $57.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.18. The company has a market capitalization of $2.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.96. 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 (NYSE:BFH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, analysts forecast that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Bread Financial’s payout ratio is 15.14%.

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

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.