Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCII) Given Consensus Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCII – Get Rating) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $49.25.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on RCII. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Rent-A-Center in a report on Thursday, March 31st. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Rent-A-Center from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $28.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday. Raymond James downgraded shares of Rent-A-Center from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $65.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, February 25th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Rent-A-Center from $68.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 25th.

NASDAQ RCII opened at $26.70 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 3.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68. Rent-A-Center has a 12-month low of $22.70 and a 12-month high of $67.76. The company has a market capitalization of $1.58 billion, a PE ratio of 20.86 and a beta of 1.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $25.88 and its 200-day moving average is $38.28.

Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ:RCII – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 4th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. Rent-A-Center had a net margin of 1.87% and a return on equity of 48.47%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Rent-A-Center will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 5th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 4th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.09%. Rent-A-Center’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 106.25%.

In related news, CEO Mitchell E. Fadel acquired 40,000 shares of Rent-A-Center stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 1st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $27.08 per share, with a total value of $1,083,200.00. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Rent-A-Center by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,143,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,682,000 after acquiring an additional 110,073 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Rent-A-Center in the first quarter valued at about $50,808,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Rent-A-Center by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,976,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,962,000 after acquiring an additional 59,905 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Rent-A-Center by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,216,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,443,000 after purchasing an additional 11,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Rent-A-Center by 7.5% in the third quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,143,560 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,280,000 after purchasing an additional 80,197 shares in the last quarter. 81.66% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Rent-A-Center Company Profile (Get Rating)

Rent-A-Center, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, leases household durable goods to customers on a lease-to-own basis. The company operates in four segments: Rent-A-Center Business, Acima, Mexico, and Franchising. It offers furniture and accessories, appliances, consumer electronics, computers, tablets and smartphones, tools, tires, handbags, and other accessories under rental purchase agreements.

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