PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) Stock Price Down 5% – What’s Next?

PPDAI Group Inc. Sponsored ADR (NYSE:FINV)’s share price dropped 5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $5.21 and last traded at $5.2050. Approximately 1,065,468 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average daily volume of 1,261,597 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.48.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FINV. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen cut PPDAI Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, November 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPDAI Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.10.

PPDAI Group Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $5.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.06). PPDAI Group had a net margin of 18.70% and a return on equity of 16.39%. The company had revenue of $432.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.80 million.

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.306 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 497.0%. This is an increase from PPDAI Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.28.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPDAI Group

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in PPDAI Group by 57.7% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 2,083 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in PPDAI Group by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 3,655 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPDAI Group in the fourth quarter valued at $120,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of PPDAI Group by 110.4% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 13,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of PPDAI Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $221,000. 31.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About PPDAI Group

PPDAI Group Inc operates an online consumer finance marketplace that connects individual and institutional investors with personal and small-business borrowers. Through its digital platform, the company facilitates unsecured consumer loans, auto refinancing loans and small-business financing by leveraging proprietary credit assessment tools and big data analytics. Investors gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of retail credit assets, while borrowers benefit from streamlined application processes and competitive financing rates.

At the core of PPDAI’s offering is a multi-layered risk management framework that combines automated credit scoring, manual underwriting oversight and third-party data verification.