Comparing FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) & Paysign (NASDAQ:PAYS)

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

Profitability

This table compares FirstCash and Paysign’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%
Paysign	10.10%	19.18%	3.84%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.3% of FirstCash shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.9% of Paysign shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 22.4% of Paysign shares are held 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.

Risk & Volatility

FirstCash has a beta of 0.53, meaning that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paysign has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for FirstCash and Paysign, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FirstCash	0	1	5	2	3.13
Paysign	0	1	4	0	2.80

FirstCash presently has a consensus price target of $167.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.77%. Paysign has a consensus price target of $8.56, indicating a potential upside of 54.28%. Given Paysign’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Paysign is more favorable than FirstCash.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FirstCash	$3.39 billion	2.12	$258.82 million	$6.93	23.45
Paysign	$58.38 million	5.23	$3.82 million	$0.13	42.69

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

Summary

FirstCash beats Paysign on 8 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 Paysign

Paysign, Inc. provides prepaid card programs, comprehensive patient affordability offerings, digital banking services, and integrated payment processing services for businesses, consumers, and government institutions. Its product offerings include solutions for corporate rewards, prepaid gift cards, general purpose reloadable debit cards, employee incentives, consumer rebates, donor compensation, clinical trials, healthcare reimbursement payments and pharmaceutical payment assistance, and demand deposit accounts accessible with a debit card. The company markets its prepaid card solutions under the Paysign brand. Its primary market focus is on companies and municipalities that require a streamlined payment solution for rewards, rebates, payment assistance, and other payments to their customers, employees, agents, and others. The company was formerly known as 3PEA International, Inc. and changed its name to Paysign, Inc. in April 2019. Paysign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada.