PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) Stock Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $16.47 and traded as high as $19.02. PRA Group shares last traded at $18.99, with a volume of 516,983 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PRAA. Wall Street Zen cut PRA Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of PRA Group in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, PRA Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.00.

PRA Group Trading Up 1.3%

The company has a market cap of $724.28 million, a P/E ratio of -2.65 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $17.14 and its 200-day moving average is $16.47.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $314.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $295.90 million. PRA Group had a negative net margin of 22.51% and a positive return on equity of 13.19%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PRA Group, Inc. will post 2.52 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PRA Group

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRAA. Topline Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of PRA Group by 16.2% during the third quarter. Topline Capital Management LLC now owns 2,615,711 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $40,387,000 after acquiring an additional 365,082 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in PRA Group by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,499,488 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $26,526,000 after acquiring an additional 4,895 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in PRA Group by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,296,830 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $22,941,000 after purchasing an additional 156,520 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 109,857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PRA Group by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 752,064 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $13,304,000 after purchasing an additional 95,179 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.22% of the company’s stock.

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.