Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) Price Target to $52.00

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) had its price objective reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $59.00 to $52.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Brighthouse Financial from $52.00 to $41.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays upgraded Brighthouse Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $52.00 to $85.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Brighthouse Financial from $59.00 to $56.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Brighthouse Financial from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Brighthouse Financial from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.00.

Brighthouse Financial Price Performance

Shares of Brighthouse Financial stock opened at $47.82 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $56.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.01. Brighthouse Financial has a fifty-two week low of $40.00 and a fifty-two week high of $64.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a PE ratio of 9.27 and a beta of 0.91.

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The company reported $5.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.56 by $1.32. Brighthouse Financial had a net margin of 8.21% and a return on equity of 26.94%. Analysts expect that Brighthouse Financial will post 20.32 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Brighthouse Financial news, EVP John Rosenthal sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.00, for a total transaction of $610,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 66,262 shares in the company, valued at $4,041,982. This represents a 13.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Brighthouse Financial

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BHF. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Brighthouse Financial by 188.0% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 406 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd increased its holdings in Brighthouse Financial by 327.0% in the fourth quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 918 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH bought a new position in shares of Brighthouse Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,000. KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Brighthouse Financial by 33.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,664 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 663 shares during the period. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Brighthouse Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $217,000. 81.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Brighthouse Financial Company Profile

Brighthouse Financial, Inc provides annuity and life insurance products in the United States. It operates through three segments: Annuities, Life, and Run-off. The Annuities segment consists of variable, fixed, index-linked, and income annuities for contract holders’ needs for protected wealth accumulation on a tax-deferred basis, wealth transfer, and income security.