Performant Financial Corporation (PFMT) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research to “Sell”

Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Performant Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:PFMT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

According to Zacks, “Performant Financial Corporation is engaged in providing technology-enabled recovery and related analytics services in the United States. The company’s services help identify and recover delinquent or defaulted assets and improper payments for both government and private clients. Services offered by the company includes financial asset recovery, risk management, audit and recovery cost containment and fraud, waste and abuse marketplace. Performant provides its services on an outsourced basis. It provides services to clients in a range of different markets which includes student lending and healthcare, delinquent state taxes and federal Treasury and other receivables. Performant Financial Corporation is headquartered in Livermore, California. “

Separately, ValuEngine raised shares of Performant Financial Corporation from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 17th.

Shares of Performant Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:PFMT) opened at 1.80 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $1.96 and its 200 day moving average is $2.05. Performant Financial Corporation has a 1-year low of $1.50 and a 1-year high of $4.07. The company’s market capitalization is $91.43 million.

Performant Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:PFMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The business services provider reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $35.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.65 million. Performant Financial Corporation had a negative net margin of 13.74% and a negative return on equity of 6.81%. The business’s revenue was down 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.06 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Performant Financial Corporation will post ($0.08) EPS for the current fiscal year.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITY WARNING: This article was reported by [[site]] and is the property of of [[site]]. If you are viewing this article on another publication, it was stolen and republished in violation of US and international copyright legislation. The legal version of this article can be viewed at [[permalink]].

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. RMB Capital Management LLC increased its position in Performant Financial Corporation by 32.7% in the first quarter. RMB Capital Management LLC now owns 1,089,261 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,192,000 after buying an additional 268,161 shares during the period. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. increased its position in Performant Financial Corporation by 5.7% in the first quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 4,823,858 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $14,134,000 after buying an additional 259,753 shares during the period. Mirador Capital Partners LP increased its position in Performant Financial Corporation by 161.9% in the second quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 50,876 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $103,000 after buying an additional 31,447 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position in Performant Financial Corporation by 139.9% in the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 41,939 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 24,454 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Performant Financial Corporation by 0.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,118,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,278,000 after buying an additional 9,968 shares during the period. 54.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Performant Financial Corporation

Performant Financial Corporation (Performant) provides technology-enabled recovery and related analytics services in the United States. The Company’s services identify and recover delinquent or defaulted assets and improper payments for both government and private clients in a range of markets. The Company provides its services on an outsourced basis where the Company handles many or all aspects of its clients’ recovery processes.