FirstCash (FCFS) Competitors

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and CDW (NASDAQ:CDW) are both retail companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of FCFS or CDW?

80.3% of FirstCash shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.2% of CDW shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of CDW shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, FCFS or CDW?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstCash	$3.39B	1.92	$258.82M	$6.51	22.48
CDW	$21.88B	0.98	$1.08B	$8.05	20.41

Do analysts recommend FCFS or CDW?

FirstCash currently has a consensus price target of $143.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.28%. CDW has a consensus price target of $202.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.95%. Given CDW's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe CDW is more favorable than FirstCash.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstCash	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
CDW	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is FCFS or CDW more profitable?

FirstCash has a net margin of 8.61% compared to CDW's net margin of 4.92%. CDW's return on equity of 53.63% beat FirstCash's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FirstCash	8.61%	16.63%	7.70%
CDW	4.92%	53.63%	8.58%

Which has more risk & volatility, FCFS or CDW?

FirstCash has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its stock price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CDW has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FCFS or CDW a better dividend stock?

FirstCash pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. CDW pays an annual dividend of $2.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. FirstCash pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CDW pays out 31.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. FirstCash has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and CDW has raised its dividend for 10 consecutive years. CDW is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to FCFS or CDW?

In the previous week, CDW had 15 more articles in the media than FirstCash. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for CDW and 10 mentions for FirstCash. CDW's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat FirstCash's score of 0.77 indicating that CDW is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
FirstCash	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CDW	21 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

CDW beats FirstCash on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.