Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Downgraded by Argus to “Hold”

Argus cut shares of Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on BFH. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Bread Financial from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $48.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Bread Financial from an in-line rating to an underperform rating and raised their price target for the company from $29.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Bread Financial from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $52.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $36.64.

Bread Financial Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of BFH stock opened at $38.38 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.83, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.93. Bread Financial has a 1-year low of $23.19 and a 1-year high of $41.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.20.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.92 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $991.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $998.96 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 8.08%. The company’s revenue was down 23.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $9.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 6.5 EPS for the current year.

Bread Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.58%.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of Bread Financial by 586.5% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 712,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,370,000 after buying an additional 608,769 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bread Financial during the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,365,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Bread Financial during the third quarter worth approximately $13,687,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Bread Financial by 1,331.0% during the third quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 302,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,359,000 after buying an additional 281,738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Bread Financial by 188.1% during the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 414,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,183,000 after buying an additional 270,750 shares in the last quarter. 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.