Piper Jaffray Upgrades Encore Capital Inc. (ECPG) to Overweight

Piper Jaffray upgraded Encore Capital Inc. (NASDAQ: ECPG) from Neutral to Overweight with a price target of $51.00.

Analyst Michael Grondahl cited: 1) ECPG's acquisition strategy continues to progress and offers additional capital allocation opportunities across the model, 2) while supply is challenging within the US consumer credit charge off market, it is not getting worse and may get better, and 3) CFPB regulatory rules changes likely provide increased barriers to entry for smaller
players vs. ECPG operating at scale.

Additionally, they believe that recent weak stock performance offers an attractive valuation for investors (7.9x 2015E EPS) and we note that ECPG has solid cash flow metrics and $33.2M available on its stock buyback.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Encore Capital Inc. click here. For more ratings news on Encore Capital Inc. click here.

Shares of Encore Capital Inc. closed at $40.04 yesterday.

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