PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Citizens Jmp downgraded the stock from a market outperform rating to a market perform rating. The stock had previously closed at $15.81, but opened at $15.16. PRA Group shares last traded at $13.4410, with a volume of 363,448 shares.

PRAA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research downgraded PRA Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup cut PRA Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of PRA Group from $33.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PRA Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PRA Group news, Director Geir Olsen bought 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $14.15 per share, with a total value of $212,250.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 58,933 shares in the company, valued at approximately $833,901.95. The trade was a 34.14% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PRA Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of PRA Group during the fourth quarter worth about $178,000. Inscription Capital LLC acquired a new position in PRA Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $221,000. UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of PRA Group by 87.2% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 346,436 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,128,000 after acquiring an additional 161,407 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of PRA Group by 48.8% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 14,056 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 4,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of PRA Group by 39.0% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,420 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 1,802 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.22% of the company’s stock.

PRA Group Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $498.94 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.46 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day moving average is $16.72 and its 200 day moving average is $15.98.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The business services provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $247.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $295.77 million. PRA Group had a positive return on equity of 7.03% and a negative net margin of 29.55%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that PRA Group, Inc. will post 2.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PRA Group Company Profile

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.