Analyst Downgrade Sends Purchasers? Stocks Down

Several of the major publicly traded debt purchasers took it on the chin today with investors selling off their shares following a downgrade of one of the companies by an influential analyst.

Portfolio Recovery Associates fell 4.8 percent to $48.23 in midday trading today. The company’s stock closed at a 52-week high of $64.55 on July 17, but has faced a strong sell off since then. Chicago-based First Analysis Securities downgraded Portfolio Recovery from a ranking of Overweight to Equal-Weight this morning.

Asset Acceptance was down nearly 7.4 percent to $10.83 in midday trading today. The company this week reported a 33 percent decline in second quarter profits. The stock of Asta Funding was down 1.9 percent to $34.82 in midday trading while Encore Capital Group saw a 1.6 percent decline to $9.92.

Also today, First City Financial Corp. announced it is in compliance with the listing standards of the NASDAQ market. The company failed to meet minimum listing requirements earlier this year after failing to file its 2006 annual report and its first quarter 2007 report.

First City filed those documents on July 24. First City’s stock was down a fraction to $8.49 in midday trading.