ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., June 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asta Funding, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASFI) (the "Company"), a consumer receivable asset management and liquidation company, today announced it has been added to the Russell 2000 ® Index effective June 25, 2012.
Gary Stern, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company stated: "We are pleased to be added to the Russell 2000 Index, which reflects our continued positive momentum. We believe our inclusion in the Russell 2000 will help increase visibility with investors and institutions that rely on the Russell indexes as part of their investment strategy, providing us with the opportunity to expand our shareholder base."
The Russell indices are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for both index funds and as benchmarks for passive and active investment strategies. Today, Russell provides the leading U.S. equity index family for institutional investors with over $3.9 trillion in investment assets benchmarked against them.
Based in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Asta Funding, Inc., is a leading consumer receivable asset management company that specializes in the purchase, management and liquidation of performing and non-performing consumer receivables. For additional information, please visit our website at http://www.astafunding.com.
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All statements in this news release other than statements of historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, budgets, projected revenues, projected costs, and plans and objective of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "estimates," "anticipates," or "believes" or the negative thereof, or any variation thereon, or similar terminology or expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors which could materially affect our results and our future performance include, without limitation, our ability to purchase defaulted consumer receivables at appropriate prices, changes in government regulations that affect our ability to collect sufficient amounts on our defaulted consumer receivables, our ability to employ and retain qualified employees, changes in the credit or capital markets, changes in interest rates, deterioration in economic conditions, negative press regarding the debt collection industry which may have a negative impact on a debtor's willingness to pay the debt we acquire, potential regulation or limitation of interest rates and other fees advanced by Pegasus or Balance Point under federal and/or state regulation, a change in statutory or case law which limits or restricts the ability of Pegasus or Balance Point to charge or collect fees and interest at anticipated levels, a litigant's being unsuccessful in whole or in part in the litigation upon which our funds are provided, the continued services of the senior management of Pegasus and Balance Point to source and analyze cases in accordance with the underwriting guidelines of Pegasus and Balance Point, and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing, as well as other factors set forth under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2011 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing. Except as required by law, we assume no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission are available free of charge through our website at http://www.astafunding.com.