Oppenheimer Keeps Their Hold Rating on Pra Group

Oppenheimer analyst Ben Chittenden maintained a Hold rating on Pra Group (NASDAQ: PRAA) today. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $36.15.

Chittenden wrote:

“PRAA reported very strong 1Q18 EPS of $0.47 vs. our/consensus’ $0.42/$0.37E f,or 1Q18. The delta vs. us was basically all tax-related; on a pretax basis EPS was exactly in line. The quarter also included an outsized FV change in interest swap which helped interest expense, but bounces around over time. With that said, PRAA did significantly ramp up hiring (+350 collectors in 1Q18) to get to what it felt was appropriate capacity levels. Thus, there are lots of moving parts to the quarter, but as we see it, the underlying industry dynamics and PRAA model are improving. Gross collections bettered expectations, and this was before aggregate productivity gains really kick in. What keeps us on the sidelines at this moment is primarily valuation.”

According to TipRanks.com, Chittenden is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 1.4% and a 55.7% success rate. Chittenden covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Discover Financial Services, Credit Acceptance Corp, and Capital One Financial.

Pra Group has an analyst consensus of Hold, with a price target consensus of $40.

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Pra Group’s market cap is currently $1.63B and has a P/E ratio of 10.21. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 1.50.

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PRA Group, Inc. focuses on the acquisition, collection, and processing of both unpaid and normal course accounts receivable originally owed to credit grantors, governments, retailers and others. Its primary business is the purchase, collection and management of portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables.