PRU - Brighthouse gets upgraded to Equal Weight at Wells Fargo on rising rates

Wells Fargo analyst Elyse Greenspan has upgraded Brighthouse Financial (NASDAQ:BHF) to Equal Weight from Underweight as rising long-term interest rates should continue to improve the financial firm's valuations.  In addition, Brighthouse's (BHF) strong capital position and projections for distributable earnings could allow for larger stock buyback's from Greenspan's current estimate of $450M a year from 2022 to 2024. The analyst also increased her EPS estimates to reflect better alternative results in Q1 2022, higher interest rates, and higher accretion on buyback estimates. For 2022, Greenspan raised her estimate for Brighthouse's (BHF) EPS for 2022  to $14.90 from prior estimate of $14.10, for 2023 to $16.00 from $15.40, and keeps estimate for 2024 unchanged at $17.55. Recession risk is the main reason why the analyst remains on the sidelines. "BHF if the most sensitive to the macro environment among the names we cover, and any volatility in the credit and equity

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Brighthouse gets upgraded to Equal Weight at Wells Fargo on rising rates