Reviewing FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and Enova International (NYSE:ENVA)

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and Enova International (NYSE:ENVA) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for FirstCash and Enova International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstCash	0	1	4	0	2.80
Enova International	0	0	8	1	3.11

FirstCash currently has a consensus target price of $249.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.27%. Enova International has a consensus target price of $247.83, suggesting a potential upside of 9.30%. Given FirstCash’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe FirstCash is more favorable than Enova International.

Volatility and Risk

FirstCash has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its share price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enova International has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstCash	9.42%	19.65%	8.38%
Enova International	10.31%	26.66%	5.55%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares FirstCash and Enova International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstCash	$4.12 billion	2.33	$330.38 million	$8.76	25.32
Enova International	$3.15 billion	1.79	$308.39 million	$13.49	16.81

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.3% of FirstCash shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.4% of Enova International shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Enova International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Enova International beats FirstCash on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Enova International

Enova International, Inc., a technology and analytics company, provides online financial services in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company provides installment loans; line of credit accounts; CSO programs, including arranging loans with independent third-party lenders and assisting in the preparation of loan applications and loan documents; and bank programs, such as marketing services and loan servicing for near-prime unsecured consumer installment loan. It offers money transfer services. It markets its financing products under the CashNetUSA, NetCredit, OnDeck, Headway Capital, Simplic, and Pangea names. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.