Bailard Inc. Invests $457,000 in Encore Capital Group Inc $ECPG

Bailard Inc. bought a new position in shares of Encore Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ECPG) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 8,416 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $457,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECPG. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Encore Capital Group by 379.7% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 98,817 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,125,000 after acquiring an additional 78,217 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Encore Capital Group by 476.6% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 92,978 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,599,000 after acquiring an additional 76,852 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC grew its holdings in Encore Capital Group by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,308,252 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $54,606,000 after acquiring an additional 59,421 shares in the last quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Encore Capital Group by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 350,850 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,644,000 after acquiring an additional 52,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Encore Capital Group by 263.0% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 68,860 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,361,000 after acquiring an additional 49,892 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling at Encore Capital Group

In other news, insider Ryan B. Bell sold 7,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.04, for a total value of $499,849.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 48,170 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,325,656.80. This trade represents a 13.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on ECPG shares. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Encore Capital Group from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Citizens Jmp increased their target price on shares of Encore Capital Group from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Encore Capital Group from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research cut shares of Encore Capital Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Encore Capital Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Encore Capital Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.25.

Encore Capital Group Stock Up 3.4%

NASDAQ:ECPG opened at $81.73 on Friday. Encore Capital Group Inc has a fifty-two week low of $35.67 and a fifty-two week high of $92.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.50.

Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ:ECPG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The asset manager reported $3.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.02 by $0.84. Encore Capital Group had a net margin of 16.00% and a return on equity of 30.70%. The business had revenue of $475.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $446.26 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Encore Capital Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.000-13.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Encore Capital Group Inc will post 13.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Encore Capital Group Company Profile

Encore Capital Group, Inc is a global specialty finance company that focuses on the purchase and management of nonperforming consumer receivables. Through its subsidiaries, the company acquires charged-off debt portfolios from credit card issuers, banks, and other financial institutions, and seeks to recover outstanding balances through a combination of customer outreach, payment arrangements, and, where appropriate, legal collection efforts. Encore’s business model emphasizes compliance with regulatory and industry standards to ensure ethical and transparent debt-recovery practices.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Encore operates across North America and Europe.