# Bread Financial Holdings (BFH.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/BFH

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:26:53.922Z. Financial observations: FY1998–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $101.31 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 5 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 5

- Years with a net loss: 0

- Operating margin variation: 0.35×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 0.18×

- FY2017: 0.28×

- FY2018: 0.31×

- FY2019: 0.32×

- FY2020: 0.27×

- FY2021: 0.32×

- FY2022: 0.21×

- FY2023: 0.37×

- FY2024: 0.07×

- FY2025: 0.16×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 6.8%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 4.8%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -13.5 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 57.9%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 71.3%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 2.2%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 5.6%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 6.7%

- FY2017: 6.8%

- FY2018: 8.4%

- FY2019: 8.2%

- FY2020: 6.4%

- FY2021: 4.0%

- FY2022: 5.0%

- FY2023: 30.6%

- FY2024: 4.8%

- FY2025: 15.8%

### economics: fail

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.10×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $2.8B

- Net income, five-year total: $2.5B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 0.0%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -43.5 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -287.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -12.5%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.05×

- FY2022: 1.20×

- FY2023: 1.09×

- FY2024: 1.19×

- FY2025: 1.11×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 6.8% vs 15.8%

- Per-share earnings: 7.64 to 10.88 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: -4.8%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: -0.1%

- Market cap gain: -$14B

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$2.0B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -4.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.1%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value growth: 4.5%

- Per-share value change: $3.24

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: $7.64

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $10.88

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.29

- Average buyback yield: 5.4%

- Buyback history: 8 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: $112M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $5.3B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 6.8%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 15.8%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $6.99

- FY2017: $11.26

- FY2018: $13.95

- FY2019: $5.46

- FY2020: $4.47

- FY2021: $16.02

- FY2022: $4.46

- FY2023: $14.36

- FY2024: $5.50

- FY2025: $10.88

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -6.9%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.02×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 2.7%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 4.04×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.22×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -6.2%

- FY2017: -5.9%

- FY2018: -5.9%

- FY2019: -3.5%

- FY2020: -7.4%

- FY2021: -3.4%

- FY2022: -6.4%

- FY2023: -5.5%

- FY2024: -6.9%

- FY2025: -6.9%

## Holders

- [Bill Miller](https://gigainvestors.com/LMM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Richard Pzena](https://gigainvestors.com/PIM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Up 275% since Oct 2023 · "BFH Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Solid Credit Sales, Revenues Rise Y/Y" (finance.yahoo.com, Jul 2026) · sales +0.2%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:23.451Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-08-18: Bread Financial's SWOT analysis: stock faces BNPL competition amid credit improvements ([investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/swot-analysis/bread-financials-swot-analysis-stock-faces-bnpl-competition-amid-credit-improvements-93CH-4198058))

- 2026-04-27: Bread Financial Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates on Higher Credit Sales ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/bread-financial-q1-earnings-beat-161900901.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +0.2%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-13.

- FY2016: $7.1B 

- FY2017: $5.5B 

- FY2018: $5.7B 

- FY2019: $4.1B 

- FY2020: $3.3B 

- FY2021: $3.3B 

- FY2022: $3.8B 

- FY2023: $4.3B 

- FY2024: $3.8B 

- FY2025: $3.8B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 77.4%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-13.

- FY2016: 34.1% 

- FY2017: 46.6% 

- FY2018: 45.7% 

- FY2019: 57.4% 

- FY2020: 59.1% 

- FY2021: 51.3% 

- FY2022: 58.3% 

- FY2023: 71.3% 

- FY2024: 63.6% 

- FY2025: 77.4% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in credit services; annual sales are USD 3.8 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm#000110121526000016 (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: revenue 3845000000; grossProfit 2976000000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); BFH.US: 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, underwriting, and funding services for private label and co-brand credit card programs, as well as through Bread Pay partnerships. The company also manages and services the loans it originates for private label, co-brand, and general-purpose credit card programs, and installment loans and split-pay products; and provides marketing, and data and analytics services. In addition, it offers an enhanced digital suite that includes a unified software development kit, which provides access to its suite of products, as well as promotes credit payment options earlier in the shopping experience. Further, the company through Bread Pay, a digital payments platform and robust suite of application programming interfaces allows merchants and partners to integrate online point-of-sale financing and other digital payment products. Additionally, it offers retail and deposit products, primarily in the form of certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts, including traditional and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts. The company offers its products under the Bread, Bread Financial, Bread Cashback, Bread Rewards, Bread Pay, and Bread Savings brands. The company was formerly known as Alliance Data Systems Corporation and changed its name to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. in March 2022. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 63.6% to 77.4% during 2023–25; it earns 6.8% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 71.3%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 63.6%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 77.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.0670608424845713],[2017,0.06815190735679912],[2018,0.08445133716710217],[2019,0.08241406807779814],[2020,0.06405314505395743],[2021,0.039667529364921364],[2022,0.05016138940079298],[2023,0.30604397495010666],[2024,0.048038346253038613],[2025,0.1576562971911809]]; median 0.0676063749206852. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back USD 313 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2016: growth capex 0; upkeep 207000000; owner earnings 820900000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2017: growth capex 0; upkeep 225400000; owner earnings 1060900000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2018: growth capex 0; upkeep 199800000; owner earnings 1250600000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2019: growth capex 0; upkeep 142300000; owner earnings 384700000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 54000000; owner earnings 344000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2021: growth capex 0; upkeep 84000000; owner earnings 840000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 68000000; owner earnings 268000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2023: growth capex 0; upkeep 48000000; owner earnings 786000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 36000000; owner earnings 331000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 24000000; owner earnings 574000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); Dividend observations: [[2016,30000000],[2017,115500000],[2018,125200000],[2019,127400000],[2020,60600000],[2021,42000000],[2022,43000000],[2023,42000000],[2024,43000000],[2025,42000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-13); FY2025: cash repurchases 313000000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 1.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); BFH.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 1.489 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 1.3 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-13); Closing price 101.31 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 80.77731092436974; price multiple 1.2541888166449935. FY2025 cash earnings/share 12.058823529411764. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $204.47 per share

- 2016-11: $228.78 per share

- 2016-12: $228.50 per share

- 2017-01: $228.38 per share

- 2017-02: $242.98 per share

- 2017-03: $249.00 per share

- 2017-04: $249.63 per share

- 2017-05: $241.13 per share

- 2017-06: $256.69 per share

- 2017-07: $241.43 per share

- 2017-08: $225.50 per share

- 2017-09: $221.55 per share

- 2017-10: $223.73 per share

- 2017-11: $239.27 per share

- 2017-12: $253.48 per share

- 2018-01: $256.66 per share

- 2018-02: $240.96 per share

- 2018-03: $212.86 per share

- 2018-04: $203.05 per share

- 2018-05: $210.82 per share

- 2018-06: $233.20 per share

- 2018-07: $224.88 per share

- 2018-08: $238.58 per share

- 2018-09: $236.16 per share

- 2018-10: $206.18 per share

- 2018-11: $200.36 per share

- 2018-12: $150.08 per share

- 2019-01: $177.59 per share

- 2019-02: $173.00 per share

- 2019-03: $174.98 per share

- 2019-04: $160.10 per share

- 2019-05: $137.50 per share

- 2019-06: $140.13 per share

- 2019-07: $156.92 per share

- 2019-08: $122.95 per share

- 2019-09: $128.13 per share

- 2019-10: $100.00 per share

- 2019-11: $106.91 per share

- 2019-12: $112.20 per share

- 2020-01: $102.79 per share

- 2020-02: $85.88 per share

- 2020-03: $33.65 per share

- 2020-04: $50.07 per share

- 2020-05: $46.33 per share

- 2020-06: $45.12 per share

- 2020-07: $44.36 per share

- 2020-08: $45.11 per share

- 2020-09: $41.98 per share

- 2020-10: $51.54 per share

- 2020-11: $73.14 per share

- 2020-12: $74.10 per share

- 2021-01: $67.65 per share

- 2021-02: $96.50 per share

- 2021-03: $112.09 per share

- 2021-04: $117.85 per share

- 2021-05: $121.05 per share

- 2021-06: $104.19 per share

- 2021-07: $93.25 per share

- 2021-08: $98.11 per share

- 2021-09: $100.89 per share

- 2021-10: $85.25 per share

- 2021-11: $68.16 per share

- 2021-12: $66.57 per share

- 2022-01: $69.04 per share

- 2022-02: $67.45 per share

- 2022-03: $56.15 per share

- 2022-04: $54.80 per share

- 2022-05: $55.10 per share

- 2022-06: $37.06 per share

- 2022-07: $39.61 per share

- 2022-08: $38.43 per share

- 2022-09: $31.45 per share

- 2022-10: $36.11 per share

- 2022-11: $41.03 per share

- 2022-12: $37.66 per share

- 2023-01: $41.03 per share

- 2023-02: $41.07 per share

- 2023-03: $30.32 per share

- 2023-04: $27.60 per share

- 2023-05: $28.18 per share

- 2023-06: $31.39 per share

- 2023-07: $41.57 per share

- 2023-08: $37.58 per share

- 2023-09: $34.20 per share

- 2023-10: $27.03 per share

- 2023-11: $28.10 per share

- 2023-12: $32.94 per share

- 2024-01: $36.27 per share

- 2024-02: $38.28 per share

- 2024-03: $37.24 per share

- 2024-04: $36.91 per share

- 2024-05: $41.76 per share

- 2024-06: $44.56 per share

- 2024-07: $54.58 per share

- 2024-08: $58.17 per share

- 2024-09: $47.58 per share

- 2024-10: $49.85 per share

- 2024-11: $58.83 per share

- 2024-12: $61.06 per share

- 2025-01: $63.33 per share

- 2025-02: $54.00 per share

- 2025-03: $50.08 per share

- 2025-04: $47.45 per share

- 2025-05: $51.24 per share

- 2025-06: $57.12 per share

- 2025-07: $61.30 per share

- 2025-08: $66.19 per share

- 2025-09: $55.77 per share

- 2025-10: $62.65 per share

- 2025-11: $67.73 per share

- 2025-12: $74.03 per share

- 2026-01: $72.54 per share

- 2026-02: $70.86 per share

- 2026-03: $74.89 per share

- 2026-04: $84.78 per share

- 2026-05: $89.07 per share

- 2026-06: $108.35 per share

- 2026-07: $108.07 per share

- 2026-08: $104.47 per share

- 2026-09: $97.75 per share

- 2026-10: $101.31 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:32:32.580Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1101215/000110121526000016/bfh-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-13.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.