PRA Group Inc.’s (NASDAQ:PRAA) fourth-quarter 2019 earnings per share of 60 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 20%, mainly attributable to growth in revenues. Moreover, the bottom line soared 81.8% year over year.
Revenues of $269 million were up 13.5% from the year-ago quarter.
However, the top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6.7% on the back of higher income recognized on finance receivables as well as other revenues.
The company’s cash collection of $456.6 million rose 13% from the figure reported in the fourth quarter of 2018 on the back of higher contributions by Americas Core, Europe Core and Europe Insolvency.
Quarterly Operational Update
PRA Group’s fee income of $4.3 million decreased 8.3% year over year.
The company’s income recognized on finance receivables during the reported quarter grew 13.8% year over year to $262.8 million.
Total operating expenses inched up 1.4% year over year to $185.8 million. This increase was due to higher agency and legal collection fees.
Business Update
The company spent $402.3 million on finance receivables in the quarter under review.
Full-Year Highlights
In 2019, the company’s total revenues were up 12% year over year to $1 billion.
In 2019, the company spent $1.3 billion on finance receivables.
The company’s global cash collections of $1.8 billion were up 13% year over year.
It also reported record portfolio purchases worth $1.2 billion excluding business acquisitions, reflecting an increase of 11% from the 2018 reported figure.
Financial Update
As of Dec 31, 2019, the company had total assets of $4.4 billion, up 13.2% from the level at 2018 end.
PRA Group exited the quarter with total equity of $1.2 billion, up 9.2% from the level on Dec 31, 2018.
Cash and cash equivalents in the quarter under discussion were $119.7 million, up 21.4% from the level at 2018 end.
In the quarter under review, borrowings increased 13.5% to $2.8 billion from the number at 2018 end.
Zacks Rank and Performance of Other Players
PRA Group has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Among other finance sector players that already reported fourth-quarter earnings, the bottom-line results of TCG BDC, Inc. (NASDAQ:CGBD) , Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) and Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) beat the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.
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PRA Group, Inc. (PRAA): Free Stock Analysis Report
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