The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Takes $776,000 Position in Encore Capital Group Inc $ECPG

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Encore Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ECPG) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,313 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $776,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Encore Capital Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $343,229,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Encore Capital Group by 78.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 412,498 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,419,000 after buying an additional 180,733 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Encore Capital Group by 0.7% during the first quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 388,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $27,236,000 after buying an additional 2,595 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in Encore Capital Group by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 371,916 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $20,214,000 after buying an additional 39,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Encore Capital Group by 658.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 334,018 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $23,421,000 after buying an additional 289,964 shares during the last quarter.

Encore Capital Group Price Performance

Shares of ECPG opened at $97.30 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.87. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.52. Encore Capital Group Inc has a 1-year low of $39.94 and a 1-year high of $104.98. The company has a market cap of $2.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.37 and a beta of 1.27.

Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ:ECPG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The asset manager reported $2.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.67 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $491.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $455.10 million. Encore Capital Group had a net margin of 15.86% and a return on equity of 29.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.49 EPS. Encore Capital Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.000-14.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Encore Capital Group Inc will post 13.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John Yung sold 2,000 shares of Encore Capital Group stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.08, for a total transaction of $164,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 64,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,299,905.60. This trade represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ECPG. Wall Street Zen downgraded Encore Capital Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Encore Capital Group from $105.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Encore Capital Group in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Encore Capital Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Encore Capital Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

Encore Capital Group Profile

Encore Capital Group, Inc is a global specialty finance company that focuses on the purchase and management of nonperforming consumer receivables. Through its subsidiaries, the company acquires charged-off debt portfolios from credit card issuers, banks, and other financial institutions, and seeks to recover outstanding balances through a combination of customer outreach, payment arrangements, and, where appropriate, legal collection efforts. Encore’s business model emphasizes compliance with regulatory and industry standards to ensure ethical and transparent debt-recovery practices.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Encore operates across North America and Europe.