PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) Releases Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.06 EPS

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV - Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.06), Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $432.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.80 million. PPDAI Group had a return on equity of 16.39% and a net margin of 18.70%.

PPDAI Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FINV traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $4.67. 646,926 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,280,033. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $5.38 and a 200 day moving average of $5.86. PPDAI Group has a 1 year low of $4.59 and a 1 year high of $10.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a current ratio of 2.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.30.

PPDAI Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.306 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 497.0%. This is an increase from PPDAI Group's previous annual dividend of $0.28.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of PPDAI Group by 114.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 59,266 shares of the company's stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 31,641 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of PPDAI Group by 2.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 475,988 shares of the company's stock worth $4,584,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in PPDAI Group by 573.9% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,050,439 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,116,000 after buying an additional 894,566 shares during the last quarter. 31.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of PPDAI Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $12.10.

PPDAI Group Company Profile

PPDAI Group Inc operates an online consumer finance marketplace that connects individual and institutional investors with personal and small-business borrowers. Through its digital platform, the company facilitates unsecured consumer loans, auto refinancing loans and small-business financing by leveraging proprietary credit assessment tools and big data analytics. Investors gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of retail credit assets, while borrowers benefit from streamlined application processes and competitive financing rates.

At the core of PPDAI's offering is a multi-layered risk management framework that combines automated credit scoring, manual underwriting oversight and third-party data verification.