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

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BFH - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,870,000 shares, a drop of 8.6% from the November 15th total of 3,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 854,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 5.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John J. Fawcett bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $51.02 per share, with a total value of $51,020.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 6,473 shares of the company's stock, valued at $330,252.46. This trade represents a 18.27 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bread Financial

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BFH. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Bread Financial by 33.5% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Bread Financial by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,778 shares of the company's stock worth $239,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Bread Financial by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 13,836 shares of the company's stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Bread Financial by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 13,421 shares of the company's stock valued at $639,000 after acquiring an additional 369 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd boosted its stake in Bread Financial by 30.0% during the second quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 1,721 shares of the company's stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.52% of the company's stock.

Bread Financial Trading Up 1.6 %

Bread Financial stock traded up $1.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $66.32. The stock had a trading volume of 815,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 839,179. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.16. Bread Financial has a 52 week low of $28.00 and a 52 week high of $66.71. The stock has a market cap of $3.30 billion, a PE ratio of 10.56 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.86 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $983.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $981.26 million. Bread Financial had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 6.37%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.46 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Bread Financial will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bread Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Bread Financial's payout ratio is 13.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BFH shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Bread Financial from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Bread Financial from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Bread Financial from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Bread Financial from $67.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Bread Financial from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bread Financial presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $53.54.

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.