Comparing FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) & Remitly Global (NASDAQ:RELY)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for FirstCash and Remitly Global, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstCash	0	1	5	2	3.13
Remitly Global	1	2	8	0	2.64

FirstCash presently has a consensus price target of $167.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.88%. Remitly Global has a consensus price target of $25.88, suggesting a potential upside of 78.94%. Given Remitly Global’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Remitly Global is more favorable than FirstCash.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstCash	8.88%	17.44%	7.92%
Remitly Global	1.36%	3.12%	2.05%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.3% of FirstCash shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.3% of Remitly Global shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of Remitly Global shares are held by 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.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstCash	$3.39 billion	2.09	$258.82 million	$6.93	23.20
Remitly Global	$1.26 billion	2.39	-$36.98 million	$0.09	160.67

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

Risk and Volatility

FirstCash has a beta of 0.53, indicating that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Remitly Global has a beta of 0.11, indicating that its stock price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

FirstCash beats Remitly Global on 10 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 Remitly Global

Remitly Global, Inc. provides digital financial services for immigrants and their families. It primarily offers cross-border remittance services in approximately 170 countries. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.