Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Decreases Stock Position in Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC decreased its stake in shares of Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH) by 41.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 33,525 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,450 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Bread Financial worth $2,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BFH. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,848,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $357,109,000 after buying an additional 36,057 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bread Financial by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 39,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,393,000 after purchasing an additional 16,081 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Bread Financial during the 4th quarter worth $611,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,382,135 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,393,000 after purchasing an additional 88,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Bread Financial by 96.8% in the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 146,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,964,000 after buying an additional 72,204 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.52% of the company’s stock.

Bread Financial Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of BFH stock opened at $49.95 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business’s 50 day moving average is $56.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.09. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.10 and a twelve month high of $66.71.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) last posted 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 net margin of 5.75% and a return on equity of 12.41%. Equities analysts forecast that Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. will post 6.45 EPS for the current year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Bread Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.14%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Bread Financial from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bread Financial from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $35.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $68.00 to $58.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Bread Financial in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Compass Point boosted their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $75.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Two equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.69.

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.