Rent-A-Center Stock Could Be a Stable Long-Term Investment

RCII still has upside potential after its bullish run over the past year

Jul 9, 2021 at 1:35 PM

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Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCII) is an American public furniture and electronics rent-to-own company based in Plano, Texas. RCII provides lease-to-own options on products such as furniture, appliances, consumer electronics, and computers in approximately 1,970 Rent-A-Center stores in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Recently, employees at Rent-A-Center joined forces for their annual Spring for Kids campaign, a fundraiser supporting family and youth empowerment efforts.

Rent-A-Center stock has more than doubled in price year-over-year from when the shares hit a 52-week low of $25.74 in July 2020. Additionally, shares of RCII have grown by 35% year-to-date, but are currently trading down 23% from its record high of $66.70 in early June. Rent-A-Center stock also has a forward dividend of $1.24 and a dividend yield of 2.42%.

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Additionally, Rent-A-Center has beat earnings expectations on all four of its most earnings reports. For Q2 of 2020, RCII beat analyst estimates by a margin of $0.20 and reported an EPS of $0.80. For Q3 of 2020, Rent-A-Center's EPS increased to $1.04 and beat expectations by a margin of $0.02. For Q4 of 2020, RCII posted a decrease in earnings, dropping to $1.03 per share but still beating estimates by a margin of $0.01. For Q1 of 2021, Rent-A-Center reported an EPS of $1.32 and beat expectations by a margin of $0.20.

From a fundamental perspective, Rent-A-Center stock looks like a solid value investment. Rent-A-Center stock trades at a price-earnings ratio of 14.88 and has an extremely attractive forward price-earnings ratio of 9.67. The biggest fundamental issue with potentially buying Rent-A-Center stock lies in the company's balance sheet, which holds $123 million in cash and $1.63 billion in debt.

Lastly, RCII sports affordably priced premiums at the moment. The security's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 43% stands in the low 13th percentile of readings in its annual range. This means options players are now pricing in low volatility expectations for the equity.

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