Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Sells 11,305 Shares of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRAA) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 248,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 11,305 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned approximately 0.63% of PRA Group worth $5,190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PRAA. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of PRA Group by 805.8% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,104 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of PRA Group by 154.2% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,345 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 2,029 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in PRA Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $134,000. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its holdings in PRA Group by 231.3% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,278 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 5,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its holdings in PRA Group by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 7,690 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.22% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PRA Group news, Director Brett Lee Paschke purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.39 per share, for a total transaction of $66,950.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 30,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $402,449.84. The trade was a 19.96% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on PRAA. StockNews.com downgraded PRA Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. JMP Securities dropped their price objective on PRA Group from $30.00 to $23.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th.

PRA Group Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ PRAA opened at $15.31 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.39. The company has a market capitalization of $607.18 million, a PE ratio of 8.55 and a beta of 1.70. PRA Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $12.91 and a 12 month high of $27.54.

PRA Group (NASDAQ:PRAA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The business services provider reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.32). PRA Group had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 5.16%. The company had revenue of $269.62 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $288.63 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PRA Group, Inc. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About PRA Group

PRA Group, Inc, a financial and business services company, engages in the purchase, collection, and management of portfolios of nonperforming loans worldwide. It is involved in the purchase of accounts that are primarily the unpaid obligations of individuals owed to credit originators, which include banks and other types of consumer, retail, and auto finance companies.