Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) Raised to Strong-Buy at B. Riley

Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) was upgraded by stock analysts at B. Riley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

BUR has been the topic of several other reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Burford Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 10th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Burford Capital in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Burford Capital in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $18.00.

Burford Capital Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of BUR opened at $10.90 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.09 and a beta of 0.58. Burford Capital has a 12-month low of $10.70 and a 12-month high of $15.73. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $12.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.06. The company has a current ratio of 10.09, a quick ratio of 10.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $191.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $159.02 million. Burford Capital had a net margin of 37.08% and a return on equity of 7.48%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Burford Capital will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Burford Capital

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Aberdeen Group plc acquired a new position in shares of Burford Capital during the second quarter worth about $29,208,000. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd grew its position in shares of Burford Capital by 400.0% during the second quarter. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd now owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,426,000 after buying an additional 80,000 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Burford Capital during the first quarter worth about $284,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Burford Capital by 0.8% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,527,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,804,000 after buying an additional 34,228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Burford Capital during the first quarter worth about $4,491,000.

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.