PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $21.74 and last traded at $21.8020, with a volume of 22961 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.15.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PRAA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered PRA Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of PRA Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Citizens Jmp downgraded shares of PRA Group from a “market outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a research report on Friday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

PRA Group Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $845.13 million, a P/E ratio of -2.82 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.99.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $288.86 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PRA Group, Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PRA Group

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

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.