Brokerages Set Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:BHF) Price Target at $60.50

Shares of Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:BHF) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and eight have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.50.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BHF. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Brighthouse Financial to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Brighthouse Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Brighthouse Financial in a research note on Friday, August 7th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brighthouse Financial

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Brighthouse Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $341,422,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Brighthouse Financial by 1.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,555,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,926,000 after purchasing an additional 60,791 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its position in Brighthouse Financial by 98.1% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,413,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690,064 shares in the last quarter. HBK Investments L P bought a new position in Brighthouse Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $136,059,000. Finally, Glazer Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Brighthouse Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $113,252,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.24% of the company’s stock.

Brighthouse Financial Price Performance

BHF opened at $52.27 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Brighthouse Financial has a 12 month low of $42.07 and a 12 month high of $66.80. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.93. The stock has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.87.

Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $4.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.86 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Brighthouse Financial had a return on equity of 17.24% and a net margin of 12.49%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.43 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Brighthouse Financial will post 18.83 EPS for the current year.

About Brighthouse Financial

Brighthouse Financial, Inc is a U.S.-based life insurance company that specializes in retirement income solutions and annuity products. The firm was established in August 2017 as a spin-off from MetLife, Inc, and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since its separation, Brighthouse Financial has focused on providing products designed to help individuals and families manage retirement income needs, drawing on decades of experience in life insurance and annuity administration inherited from its parent company.

The company’s core product offerings include fixed indexed annuities, which allow policyholders to participate in market-linked gains while protecting against downside market risk, and single premium immediate annuities, which provide guaranteed lifetime income.