Hennessy Advisors Inc. Invests $10.39 Million in Encore Capital Group Inc $ECPG

Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Encore Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ECPG) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 111,400 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $10,393,000.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Encore Capital Group

In other news, insider John Yung sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.08, for a total value of $164,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 64,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,299,905.60. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ECPG shares. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Encore Capital Group from $105.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research upgraded Encore Capital Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Encore Capital Group in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Encore Capital Group from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Encore Capital Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.75.

Encore Capital Group Stock Down 3.0%

ECPG stock opened at $98.94 on Friday. Encore Capital Group Inc has a twelve month low of $39.94 and a twelve month high of $104.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.87. The stock has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.49 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $94.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.17.

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

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.