Shares of Encore Capital Group (NASDAQ: ECPG) are surging 12.21% in pre-market trading on Thursday, building on the previous day's 5.32% gain. The significant jump comes after the specialty finance company released its impressive second-quarter financial results and raised its full-year guidance.
Encore Capital reported second-quarter earnings per share of $2.49, substantially beating the analyst estimate of $1.42. The company's revenue for the quarter came in at $442.122 million, also surpassing the expected $383.425 million. Net income jumped 82% year-over-year to $58.721 million, exceeding analyst projections. These strong results were primarily driven by record portfolio purchases and collections, particularly in the U.S. market.
In light of the robust performance, Encore Capital has raised its full-year global collections guidance to approximately $2.5 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 15.5%, up from the previous guidance of 11% growth. The company maintained its guidance for global portfolio purchasing to exceed $1.35 billion for the year. This positive outlook, combined with the better-than-expected Q2 results, has fueled investor optimism and contributed to the stock's significant pre-market surge.