Encore Capital reports Q3 EPS 79c, consensus $1.34

Reports Q3 revenue $309.6M, consensus $333.24M. The company said, “The third quarter was another period of strong purchasing for our U.S. business at attractive returns while our collections performance remained stable in each of our key markets,” said Ashish Masih, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The continued growth in U.S. portfolio supply, driven by credit card lending growth and rising charge off rates, has led to improved portfolio pricing and returns. As a result, our MCM business deployed $179 million in Q3 at an attractive 2.4x purchase price multiple. Our third quarter global collections of $465 million were in line with expectations and continue to reflect normalized consumer behavior and a stable collections environment. In Europe, the portfolio purchasing market remains very competitive. We continue to constrain Cabot portfolio purchases, reallocating capital to the U.S. market, as we believe European market pricing still does not yet fully reflect the higher cost of capital caused by higher interest rates. “With growing supply and improving pricing in the U.S. debt buying market, we expect 2023 will be a record year of capital deployment for our MCM business at strong returns. Looking ahead, we see a robust supply pipeline in the U.S. for 2024 at even better returns.”