PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of PRA Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PRA Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

PRA Group Stock Performance

PRAA stock opened at $18.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $705.56 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.78 and a beta of 1.11. PRA Group has a 1 year low of $10.25 and a 1 year high of $22.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $17.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.64.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.99. PRA Group had a negative net margin of 19.91% and a positive return on equity of 15.56%. The business had revenue of $372.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.99 million. As a group, analysts predict that PRA Group will post 3.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of PRA Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PRAA. Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in PRA Group during the second quarter valued at $397,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of PRA Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in PRA Group during the second quarter valued at about $84,183,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of PRA Group in the second quarter worth $779,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in PRA Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,404,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.22% of the company’s stock.

PRA Group Company Profile

PRA Group, Inc is a global specialty finance company focused on the acquisition and management of nonperforming loans. Founded in 1996 as Portfolio Recovery Associates, the company purchases defaulted consumer and commercial receivables at discounted rates from financial institutions, utilities and other creditors. By combining rigorous analytics with a consumer-centric ethos, PRA Group seeks to maximize recoveries while maintaining respectful and compliant interactions with debtors.

The company’s core activities include first-party and third-party collections across a range of asset classes such as credit cards, auto loans and utility receivables.