FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and Remitly Global (NASDAQ:RELY) Critical Review

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.3% of Remitly Global shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.3% of FirstCash shares are held by institutional investors. 7.5% of Remitly Global shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of FirstCash shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Remitly Global and FirstCash”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

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

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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Remitly Global and FirstCash, as reported by MarketBeat.

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

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

Profitability

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

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

Volatility & Risk

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

Summary

FirstCash beats Remitly Global on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

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.