Analyzing Atlantic International (NASDAQ:CIRC) & Upbound Group (NASDAQ:UPBD)

Atlantic International (NASDAQ:CIRC) and Upbound Group (NASDAQ:UPBD) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Atlantic International has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Upbound Group has a beta of 1.8, meaning that its share price is 80% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Atlantic International and Upbound Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atlantic International	$435.88 million	0.05	-$59.43 million	($2.11)	-0.09
Upbound Group	$4.70 billion	0.30	$73.24 million	$1.90	12.76

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Atlantic International and Upbound Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atlantic International	1	0	0	1	2.50
Upbound Group	0	3	1	0	2.25

Upbound Group has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.39%. Given Upbound Group’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Upbound Group is more favorable than Atlantic International.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.3% of Upbound Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.6% of Atlantic International shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Upbound Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Atlantic International and Upbound Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atlantic International	-19.39%	N/A	-28.58%
Upbound Group	2.36%	33.81%	7.79%

Summary

Upbound Group beats Atlantic International on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atlantic International

Atlantic International Corp., through its subsidiaries, operates as a staffing company servicing the commercial, professional, finance, direct placement, and managed service provider verticals. The company specializes in permanent, temporary, and temporary-to-permanent placement services in various areas, including accounting and finance, administrative and clerical, hospitality, information technology, legal, light industrial, and medical fields. It also provides productivity consulting and workforce management solutions. Atlantic International Corp. was founded in 2018 and is based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

About Upbound Group

Upbound Group, Inc. leases household durable goods to customers on a lease-to-own basis in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. It operates through four segments: Rent-A-Center, Acima, Mexico, and Franchising. The company's brands, such as Rent-A-Center and Acima that facilitate consumer transactions across a range of store-based and virtual channels. It offers furniture comprising mattresses, tires, consumer electronics, appliances, tools, handbags, computers, smartphones, and accessories. It also provides merchandise on an installment sales basis; and the lease-to-own transaction to consumers who do not qualify for traditional financing, the lease to-own transaction through staffed or unstaffed kiosks located in third-party retailer's locations, and other virtual options. It operates retail installment sales stores under the Get It Now and Home Choice names; lease-to-own and franchised lease-to-own stores under the Rent-A-Centre, ColorTyme, and RimTyme names; and company-owned stores and e-commerce platform through rentacenter.com. The company was formerly known as Rent-A-Center, Inc. and changed its name to Upbound Group, Inc. in February 2023. Upbound Group, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is based in Plano, Texas.