Wedbush Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR)

Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Wedbush in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 price objective on the stock. Wedbush’s target price points to a potential upside of 34.43% from the stock’s previous close.

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Burford Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 10th.

Burford Capital Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:BUR opened at $13.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 10.09 and a quick ratio of 10.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $13.16 and a 200-day moving average of $13.58. The company has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 0.65. Burford Capital has a one year low of $10.70 and a one year high of $15.73.

Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.06. Burford Capital had a net margin of 37.08% and a return on equity of 7.48%. The business had revenue of $191.29 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $159.02 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Burford Capital will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CIO Jonathan Todd Molot sold 210,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.60, for a total transaction of $3,066,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive directly owned 3,406,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,736,725. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Aviva O. Will sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.60, for a total transaction of $255,500.00. Following the transaction, the president owned 293,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,284,793.40. This trade represents a 5.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 444,500 shares of company stock valued at $6,489,700 in the last three months. 8.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BUR. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Burford Capital by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 76,358 shares of the company’s stock valued at $974,000 after acquiring an additional 2,307 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Burford Capital by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,429,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,243,000 after acquiring an additional 63,346 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Burford Capital by 96.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 549,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,004,000 after acquiring an additional 269,928 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in Burford Capital by 27.8% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 117,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,503,000 after acquiring an additional 25,616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Burford Capital by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 24,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 888 shares during the last quarter.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital Limited provides legal finance products and services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Capital Provision, and Asset Management and Other Provision. The Capital Provision segment provides capital to the legal industry or in connection with legal matters directly and through investment in private funds; legal risk management services; lower risk legal finance business focusing on pre-settlement litigation matters with lower risk and lower expected returns; post-settlement finance; and complex strategies in which it acts as a principal and acquires assets that are mispriced.