The financial sector has recently been buzzing about The Aaron’s Company, Inc. (NYSE:AAN), a leading provider of lease-purchase solutions. According to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Aaron’s by 78.6% during the fourth quarter, owning approximately 0.20% of Aaron’s worth $720,000 at the end of the reporting period.
However, these numbers may not necessarily reflect the full story, as Aaron’s recently announced its quarterly earnings results on April 25th, beating expectations with $0.66 EPS for the quarter compared to analyst estimates of $0.28. The company also saw a revenue increase of 21.6% from the same quarter last year, bringing in $554.40 million in revenue for Q1 2023.
As a technology-enabled omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions, Aaron’s engages in direct-to-consumer sales and lease ownership of furniture, appliances, consumer electronics and accessories through its network of approximately 1,300 company-operated and franchised stores across 47 states and Canada as well as leveraging its e-commerce platform Aarons.com.
Though it is unclear why Russell Investments Group Ltd. chose to decrease their holdings in Aaron’s at this time, many industry analysts are bullish on the future performance potential within this market segment – particularly given rising demand for flexible financing options among consumers driven by factors such as recent changes in economic policy landscape which have emerged after global lock-downs due to COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020.
Despite uncertainties fueled by increased competition from digital behemoths like Amazon and others now expanding into renting out products or services like furniture or earning some enterprise incomes through renting out office spaces over their proprietary platforms under conditions set forth based on AI/ML models altogether with respect to data privacy jurisdictions around where these services are offered – the ever-growing demand for more flexible funding alternatives is expected to grow more in the coming years. As such, Aaron’s Company appears poised for continued growth and success in the global market moving into 2023 and beyond.
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Hedge Funds Increase Their Position in Aaron’s Stock: A Look at the Latest Changes and Ratings
The Aaron’s Company Inc. (NYSE: AAN), a renowned technology-enabled omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions, has seen some changes in the positions of its stock by several hedge funds. BlackRock Inc., one of the most notable among them, has increased its position in shares of Aaron’s by 7.5% during the first quarter, where the company now owns 5,714,504 shares worth $114,746,000 after purchasing an additional 398,527 shares during the period.
Vanguard Group Inc., another prominent hedge fund company in the market scenario today, boosted its position in Aaron’s by 5.9% during the same period as above and now holds 3,976,760 shares of the company worth around $79,853,000 after purchasing an additional 221,788 shares.
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP also lifted its holdings by 3.2% worth approximately $28.55 million
State Street Corp raised its holdings by roughly about 1%, making it hold around $18.8 million worth of company stocks.
Bank of America Corp DE saw an increase of roughly about 28% over recent investments made in the first quarter and issued a statement revealing that it now owns nearly around $19.21 million worth of Aaron’s company stocks after buying an additional 209,274 shares in Q1 this year.
Hedge fund companies and other institutional investors own a significant percentage (91.43%) of The Aaron’s Company Inc.’s overall stock valuation.
AAN opened at $12.59 on Friday with a twelve-month low value at $7.64 and high value at $20.04 subject to various market factors such as fifty days simple moving average ($11.17), two-hundred-day simple moving average ($12.20), overall market capitalization ($389.16 million), price-to-earnings ratio (-27.37), and a beta of 1.01. Aaron’s has its headquarters in Atlanta and operates with approximately 1,300 company-operated and franchised stores across 47 states in the US & Canada.
Further adding to Aaron’s news, it recently declared its quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 6th. Investors who are shareholders from Thursday, June 15th will be eligible for a dividend payout of $0.125 per share, representing a disclosed annualized dividend of $0.50 and a yield of about 3.97%. However, the company’s current payout ratio is -108.70%.
Several equity research analysts have issued reports on Aaron’s stock recently; among them is Stephens which has reiterated an ‘equal weight’ rating and set the target price at $18.00 per share while StockNews.com put forward a ‘buy’ rating for the stock earlier this year.
Loop Capital gave their rating as ‘buy’ too but reduced their initial target price from $20 to $15 per share meanwhile Bank of America raised concerns by decreasing their own target price from $6.50 to $7.80 per share signifying an ‘underperform’ status for AAN stocks.
Finally, Truist Financial assigned it with its label as “hold” while increasing their view from previous standpoints to match that of AAN’s market value trends by changing base objectives from $10 to $12 per share.
According to reports from Bloomberg market experts following AAN stock variables and fluctuating shares valuation trends suggest that presently The Aaron’s Company Inc.’s consensus rating stands at “Hold,” while also holding a consensus target price estimation to be around $13.20 (as on May 28th,2023).
