Hsbc Holdings PLC Buys Shares of 123,822 PRA Group, Inc. $PRAA

Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 123,822 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,275,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in PRAA. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of PRA Group by 401.6% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 601,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,421,000 after buying an additional 481,538 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in PRA Group during the second quarter worth about $84,183,000. OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in PRA Group during the first quarter worth about $483,000. Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new position in PRA Group in the first quarter valued at about $731,000. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of PRA Group by 87.2% in the fourth 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. 97.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PRAA. Wall Street Zen upgraded PRA Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Zacks Research raised PRA Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

PRA Group Stock Performance

PRAA stock opened at $19.14 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.22. The stock has a market cap of $720.58 million, a PE ratio of -2.84 and a beta of 1.11. PRA Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.25 and a 1 year high of $22.55.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The business services provider reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.99. The company had revenue of $372.17 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $299.99 million. PRA Group had a positive return on equity of 15.56% and a negative net margin of 19.91%. On average, analysts forecast that PRA Group, Inc. will post 3.93 earnings per share 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.