Aaron's Holdings Company, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Shares of Aaron's Holdings Company, Inc. (NYSE:PRG - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $41.86.

PRG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Aaron's from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Aaron's from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, BTIG Research downgraded shares of Aaron's from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $24.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday.

Aaron's Stock Performance

Shares of Aaron's stock traded down $0.70 during trading on Friday, reaching $28.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 232,902 shares, compared to its average volume of 476,192. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $29.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.69. The firm has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a PE ratio of 5.83 and a beta of 1.76. Aaron's has a fifty-two week low of $23.50 and a fifty-two week high of $50.28. The company has a current ratio of 4.98, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

Aaron's (NYSE:PRG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $684.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $678.23 million. Aaron's had a net margin of 8.38% and a return on equity of 23.11%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Aaron's will post 3.45 EPS for the current year.

Aaron's Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 20th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. Aaron's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.66%.

Insider Transactions at Aaron's

In related news, CFO Brian Garner purchased 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $28.93 per share, with a total value of $101,255.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 132,597 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,836,031.21. This trade represents a 2.71% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Steven A. Michaels bought 14,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $29.03 per share, for a total transaction of $406,420.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 559,641 shares in the company, valued at $16,246,378.23. The trade was a 2.57% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.21% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aaron's

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in Aaron's during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,577,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Aaron's by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 144,466 shares of the company's stock worth $6,105,000 after purchasing an additional 23,536 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Aaron's during the 1st quarter valued at about $388,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its position in Aaron's by 41.9% during the 1st quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 105,148 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,797,000 after purchasing an additional 31,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Aaron's by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 354,918 shares of the company's stock worth $14,999,000 after acquiring an additional 18,843 shares in the last quarter. 97.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Aaron's

PROG Holdings, Inc NYSE: PRG is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.