Guild Holdings price target raised to $14 from $12 at JPMorgan

JPMorgan raised the firm’s price target on Guild Holdings to $14 from $12 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. Entering 2024 the analyst believes investors should adopt a “more defensive positioning” in the consumer finance sector. This is a reversal from the firm’s bullish outlook in 2023 that was predicated on the belief that the market was fully discounting “the most anticipated/predicted economic slowdown in generations.” With multiples having rebounded towards historic norms, JPMorgan believes the risk/reward outlook for the space is less compelling. It believes lower and middle income borrowers are facing pressure from depleted pandemic savings and the lingering effects of high inflation.