FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) vs. Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE) Financial Contrast

Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE) and FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

18.0% of Dave shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.3% of FirstCash shares are held by institutional investors. 23.6% of Dave shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of FirstCash shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Dave and FirstCash, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dave	0	2	11	1	2.93
FirstCash	0	2	3	1	2.83

Dave presently has a consensus price target of $379.40, suggesting a potential downside of 11.62%. FirstCash has a consensus price target of $199.25, suggesting a potential downside of 7.28%. Given FirstCash’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe FirstCash is more favorable than Dave.

Volatility & Risk

Dave has a beta of 3.83, indicating that its stock price is 283% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstCash has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Dave and FirstCash”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dave	$554.20 million	9.84	$195.87 million	$15.55	27.61
FirstCash	$3.66 billion	2.55	$330.38 million	$8.76	24.53

FirstCash has higher revenue and earnings than Dave. FirstCash is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Dave, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Dave and FirstCash’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dave	37.22%	77.70%	45.59%
FirstCash	9.42%	19.65%	8.38%

Summary

Dave beats FirstCash on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Dave

Dave, Inc. is a digital banking service. Its products include a budgeting tool to help members manage their upcoming bills to avoid overspending, cash advances through its flagship ExtraCash product to help members avoid punitive overdraft fees, a Side Hustle product, where Dave helps connect members with supplemental work opportunities, and Dave Banking, a modern checking account experience with valuable tools for building long-term financial health. The company was founded by Jason Wilk, Paras Chitrakar, and John Wolanin in October 2015 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.

About FirstCash

FirstCash Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates retail pawn stores in the United States, Mexico, and rest of Latin America. The company operates in three segments: U.S. Pawn, Latin America Pawn, and Retail POS Payment Solutions segments. Its pawn stores lend money on the collateral of pledged personal property, including jewelry, electronics, tools, appliances, sporting goods, and musical instruments; and retails merchandise acquired through collateral forfeitures on forfeited pawn loans and over-the-counter purchases of merchandise directly from customers. The company also provides retail POS payment solutions, which focuses on LTO products and facilitating other retail financing payment options across the network of traditional and e-commerce merchant partners. It serves cash and credit-constrained consumers. The company was formerly known as FirstCash, Inc and changed its name to FirstCash Holdings, Inc. in December 2021. FirstCash Holdings, Inc was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.