Alliance Data Systems Co. (NYSE:ADS) – Research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group dropped their FY2019 earnings per share estimates for Alliance Data Systems in a research report issued on Monday, December 16th, according to Zacks Investment Research. Jefferies Financial Group analyst S. Thind now anticipates that the business services provider will post earnings of $16.12 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $16.42. Jefferies Financial Group also issued estimates for Alliance Data Systems’ Q4 2019 earnings at $3.89 EPS.
ADS has been the subject of several other research reports. Bank of America initiated coverage on Alliance Data Systems in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $111.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Co downgraded Alliance Data Systems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Oppenheimer upgraded Alliance Data Systems from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th.
Edward Jones downgraded Alliance Data Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $121.00 price objective on Alliance Data Systems and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $142.64. 
NYSE:ADS traded up $1.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $112.07. 715,315 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 620,498. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $108.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $125.50. Alliance Data Systems has a one year low of $99.20 and a one year high of $182.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.91. The firm has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.67.
Alliance Data Systems (NYSE:ADS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The business services provider reported $5.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $5.08 by ($0.03). Alliance Data Systems had a net margin of 7.54% and a return on equity of 47.40%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.37 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis.
Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Alliance Data Systems by 884.3% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 777,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $108,922,000 after buying an additional 698,324 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alliance Data Systems by 22,164.0% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 261,379 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,627,000 after buying an additional 260,205 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Alliance Data Systems by 4,483.9% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 219,196 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,085,000 after buying an additional 224,196 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Alliance Data Systems by 17.4% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,184,007 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $151,545,000 after buying an additional 175,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments CA grew its stake in shares of Alliance Data Systems by 11.8% during the second quarter. Parnassus Investments CA now owns 1,409,429 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $197,503,000 after buying an additional 149,311 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.98% of the company’s stock.
In other Alliance Data Systems news, insider Valueact Capital Master Fund, sold 960,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.43, for a total transaction of $15,772,915.01. Also, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Valueact sold 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.50, for a total value of $203,000,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Alliance Data Systems’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.69%.
About Alliance Data Systems
Alliance Data Systems Corporation provides data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions worldwide. It operates through three segments: LoyaltyOne, Epsilon, and Card Services. The company offers a portfolio of integrated outsourced marketing solutions, including customer loyalty programs, database marketing services, end-to-end marketing services, analytics and creative services, direct marketing services, and private label and co-brand retail credit card programs.
This announcement originally appeared in RivertonRoll.
