Northland Securities Upgrades Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ:ECPG) to “Outperform”

Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ:ECPG) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Northland Securities from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $58.00 target price on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior target price of $55.00. Northland Securities’ price objective points to a potential upside of 23.01% from the stock’s current price.

ECPG has been the topic of several other reports. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Encore Capital Group in a report on Monday. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Encore Capital Group from $70.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th.

Encore Capital Group Price Performance

Shares of ECPG traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $47.15. 5,087 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 147,068. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $47.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.50, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. The company has a market cap of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.53 and a beta of 1.55. Encore Capital Group has a 12-month low of $34.74 and a 12-month high of $54.55.

Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ:ECPG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The asset manager reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $355.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $346.06 million. Encore Capital Group had a negative net margin of 15.43% and a positive return on equity of 11.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Encore Capital Group will post 5.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Encore Capital Group

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Encore Capital Group in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. nVerses Capital LLC lifted its position in Encore Capital Group by 450.0% in the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 1,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Encore Capital Group during the second quarter worth about $60,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Encore Capital Group during the first quarter valued at about $138,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Encore Capital Group by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,980 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period.

About Encore Capital Group

Encore Capital Group, Inc, a specialty finance company, provides debt recovery solutions and other related services for consumers across financial assets worldwide. The company purchases portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables at deep discounts to face value, as well as manages them by working with individuals as they repay their obligations and works toward financial recovery.