Financial Comparison: Repay (NASDAQ:RPAY) and FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS)

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and Repay (NASDAQ:RPAY) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares FirstCash and Repay”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstCash	$3.49 billion	2.15	$258.82 million	$6.93	24.54
Repay	$308.95 million	1.06	-$10.16 million	($1.37)	-2.62

FirstCash has higher revenue and earnings than Repay. Repay 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, 82.7% of Repay shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.0% of Repay shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for FirstCash and Repay, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstCash	0	2	5	1	2.88
Repay	1	5	5	0	2.36

FirstCash currently has a consensus target price of $167.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.78%. Repay has a consensus target price of $6.92, indicating a potential upside of 92.93%. Given Repay’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Repay is more favorable than FirstCash.

Risk and Volatility

FirstCash has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Repay has a beta of 1.64, suggesting that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares FirstCash and Repay’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%
Repay	-39.08%	9.04%	4.33%

Summary

FirstCash beats Repay on 10 of the 14 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 Repay

Repay Holdings Corporation, payments technology company, provides integrated payment processing solutions to industry-oriented markets in the United States. It operates through two segments: Consumer Payments and Business Payments. The company's payment processing solutions enable consumers and businesses to make payments using electronic payment methods. It also offers a range of solutions relating to electronic payment methods, including credit and debit card processing, automated clearing house (ACH) processing, e-cash, and digital wallet services; virtual credit card processing, enhanced ACH processing, instant funding, clearing and settlement, and communication solutions; and proprietary payment channels that include Web-based, virtual terminal, online client portal, mobile application, text-to-pay, interactive voice response, and point of sale services. It serves customers primarily operating in the personal loans, automotive loans, receivables management, and business-to-business verticals through direct sales representatives and software integration partners. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.