PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $22.55 and last traded at $22.2050, with a volume of 458699 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $22.23.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PRAA shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Citizens Jmp cut shares of PRA Group from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Zacks Research cut shares of PRA Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of PRA Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, PRA Group currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

PRA Group Stock Down 2.6%

The company has a market cap of $832.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.80 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $17.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.22.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.96. PRA Group had a negative net margin of 25.39% and a positive return on equity of 10.50%. The business had revenue of $333.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $288.86 million. Research analysts forecast that PRA Group, Inc. will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of PRA Group

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PRAA. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 4.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 23,081 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $476,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 3.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 109,004 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,248,000 after purchasing an additional 4,010 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 28.8% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 14,446 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $213,000 after purchasing an additional 3,229 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 59.1% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 217,861 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,213,000 after purchasing an additional 80,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 15.5% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 819,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,091,000 after purchasing an additional 109,857 shares during the last quarter. 97.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About PRA Group

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.