Start here if you're new
what it is
It buys defaulted consumer debt cheaply, then works the accounts until people pay.
how it gets paid
Last year Encore Capital made $88M in revenue. Midland Credit Management was the main engine at $49M, or 56% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 4.3% last year. Revenue rose 202% vs. prior year, and EPS rose 139% vs. prior year.
what just happened
Encore posted $7.57 EPS on $67M of revenue.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
20/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
5.8x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
1.5% return on capital — nothing to write home about
-$2.59 fy2024 eps est
xvary composite: 45/100 — below average
What they do
It buys defaulted consumer debt cheaply, then works the accounts until people pay.
Encore wins by buying defaulted receivables (unpaid debt) at deep discounts and working them for years. Midland in the US and Cabot in Europe give you two collection engines, not one. With 7,350 employees, smaller rivals face your same messy market with less scale.
How they make money
$88M
annual revenue · their business grew +4.3% last year
Midland Credit Management
$49M
+4.3%
Cabot Credit Management
$27M
+4.3%
Debt servicing and portfolio management
$12M
0.0%
The products that matter
buys charged-off consumer receivables
Debt Portfolio Purchasing
$1.4B deployed in 2025
This is the raw material for the whole model. Encore bought $1.4B in portfolios in 2025, up 4% from the prior year.
capital in
collects and resolves purchased debt
Debt Collections & Recovery
$473.6M latest revenue figure
This is where the cash comes back out. The latest update cited $473.6M in trailing twelve-month revenue, up 78.3% from a year ago.
cash out
Key numbers
5.8x
trailing p/e
You are paying 5.8 times earnings. Cheap names get cheaper when collections wobble.
$3.9B
debt load
That is the borrowed money sitting behind a roughly $1B market cap. The gap is the story.
73%
debt / capital
Most of the capital stack is borrowed. That leaves less room when rates stay high.
45/100
price stability
A 45 score means the stock moves around enough to make patience expensive.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 2 — safer than 80% of stocks
- price stability 45 / 100
- long-term debt $3.9B (73% of capital)
C+ — balance sheet grade and long-term debt are flagged. this stock carries more risk than average.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for ECPG right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
Encore posted $7.57 EPS on $67M of revenue.
Revenue rose 202% vs. prior year, and EPS rose 139% vs. prior year. Web data also puts gross margin at 100.0%, which is the kind of number that makes debt-recovery accounting feel like a prank.
$22M
revenue
$7.57
eps
100.0%
gross margin
EPS jump
EPS at $7.57 mattered most because it showed the collection machine can still throw off profit while debt stays heavy.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
The #1 risk is regulatory or legal action against debt collection practices.
high
regulatory or legal action
Encore's business model depends on collecting consumer debt. If regulators or courts restrict collection practices, the pressure lands directly on the $473.6M revenue figure cited in the latest update.
A tougher rulebook would hit recovery rates first and margins next.
high
balance-sheet leverage
Long-term debt is $3.9B, or 73% of capital. That gives Encore buying power, but it also means a weaker collections environment would not stay an accounting issue for long.
You don't need many bad marks or weak recoveries before leverage starts running the story.
med
missing the $12 eps target
Management told the market to expect $12 in 2026 EPS. If results start coming in below that path, the turnaround story loses its cleanest proof point.
At 5.8x earnings, the multiple looks cheap. Miss the target and cheap can get cheaper.
med
portfolio bidding pressure
Encore bought $1.4B in portfolios last year. If competitors bid up the same paper, returns on new purchases fall even before collections begin.
Pay too much on the way in and the 47.5% operating margin won't look so special on the way out.
The combined risk picture is straightforward: pressure on collections or pricing hits a business carrying $3.9B of long-term debt while management is trying to deliver $12 in EPS.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
the path to $12 EPS
This is the new scoreboard. If quarterly results stop supporting that target, the rerating case gets weaker fast.
trend
portfolio purchase pace
Encore bought $1.4B in portfolios in 2025. Steady purchases mean the machine is still being fed.
risk
regulatory headlines
This is a debt collector. Changes in collection rules matter more here than they do for a normal financial stock.
calendar
next earnings for proof
One good quarter changed the tone. The next few quarters decide whether it changed the business.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
20 / 100
Low predictability means the earnings path is hard to model. In human-speak: analysts don't trust this to print smooth quarters.
risk rank
2
This measure says the stock is safer than 80% of names in the dataset. That's a useful reminder that business messiness and market risk are not always the same thing.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for ECPG is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$57
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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