Aaron’s Holdings Company, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Aaron’s Holdings Company, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $44.83.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Aaron’s from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on Aaron’s from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

Aaron’s Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Aaron’s stock opened at $29.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 4.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.93. Aaron’s has a 12-month low of $23.50 and a 12-month high of $50.28.

Aaron’s (NYSE:PRG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $684.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $678.23 million. Aaron’s had a return on equity of 23.11% and a net margin of 8.38%. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Aaron’s will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Aaron’s Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 20th. Aaron’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.66%.

Insider Transactions at Aaron’s

In other Aaron’s news, CFO Brian Garner purchased 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $28.93 per share, with a total value of $101,255.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 132,597 shares in the company, valued at $3,836,031.21. This trade represents a 2.71% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Steven A. Michaels purchased 14,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.03 per share, for a total transaction of $406,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 559,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,246,378.23. This trade represents a 2.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aaron’s

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PRG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Aaron’s by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,005,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,148,000 after purchasing an additional 68,369 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Aaron’s by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,564,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,373,000 after purchasing an additional 134,123 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in Aaron’s by 16.3% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 907,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,129,000 after purchasing an additional 127,384 shares during the last quarter. Breach Inlet Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Aaron’s by 140.7% in the first quarter. Breach Inlet Capital Management LLC now owns 703,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,722,000 after acquiring an additional 411,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vulcan Value Partners LLC lifted its stake in Aaron’s by 84.3% in the first quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 681,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,134,000 after acquiring an additional 311,917 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.92% of the company’s stock.

About Aaron’s

PROG Holdings, Inc (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.