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Rent-A-Center (RCII) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Rent-A-Center closed the most recent trading day at $21.12, moving +0.76% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.36%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.36%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.34%.

Heading into today, shares of the company that leases furniture and appliances with an option to buy had gained 13.11% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Discretionary sector's loss of 1.73% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from RCII as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.29, up 462.5% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $680.04 million, down 2.58% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.88 per share and revenue of $2.61 billion, which would represent changes of +77.36% and -1.95%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for RCII should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.6% higher. RCII is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, RCII is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 11.14. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.98, so we one might conclude that RCII is trading at a discount comparatively.

The Consumer Services - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 88, which puts it in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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