Reviewing Nayax (NASDAQ:NYAX) and FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS)

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

34.9% of Nayax shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.3% of FirstCash shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of FirstCash shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Nayax and FirstCash, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Nayax	1	3	3	0	2.29
FirstCash	0	2	3	1	2.83

Nayax presently has a consensus target price of $49.00, indicating a potential downside of 3.92%. FirstCash has a consensus target price of $177.50, indicating a potential downside of 4.63%. Given Nayax’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nayax is more favorable than FirstCash.

Volatility and Risk

Nayax has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FirstCash has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Nayax and FirstCash”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Nayax	$314.01 million	5.76	-$5.63 million	$0.64	79.69
FirstCash	$3.66 billion	2.24	$330.38 million	$7.42	25.08

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Nayax	6.49%	6.51%	2.17%
FirstCash	9.02%	17.99%	8.03%

Summary

FirstCash beats Nayax on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Nayax

Nayax Ltd., a fintech company, operates system and payment platform for multiple retailers in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, and rest of the world. The company offers AMIT 3.0, a machine-to-machine vending telemetry solution; Nayax Core, a management and monitoring software for vending machines and other unattended machines; MoMa, a mobile app for unattended machine; Tigapo back-office software suite, a cloud-based platform; EV Core, a smart, cloud-based management platform; Retail Management Cloud, a comprehensive attended retail management platform; Loyalty and Marketing Suite, a consumer engagement marketing and loyalty platform; Monyx Wallet, a digital wallet app enabling cashless payments with mobile phones; Weezmo, a consumer engagement and marketing platform; and Tigapo app, a proprietary mobile app to help family entertainment center businesses. It provides electric vehicle charging stations; VPOS Touch, a credit card reader cashless payment device; VPOS Fusion, a cashless payment card reader; ONYX, a contactless card reader and telemetry device; NOVA 156, an electronic cash register; DOT, a smart QR and barcode reader; UNO Plus and UNO 8, which are EMV and FeliCa contactless readers; EMV SOM, a PCI-PTS ready contactless EMV reader module; Nova Market, a cashless micro market and self-checkout solution; NOVA 55, an a handheld smart point of sale (POS) device; NOVA 45, a handheld mini smart terminals for attended POS; and Retail One, a universal retail solution that integrates directly with SAP. The company sells its products directly, as well as through resellers and distributors. It serves various verticals, including vending machines, coffee machines, unattended checkout counters, self-service kiosks, ticketing machines, car wash stations, gaming machines, amusement rides, laundromats, and EV charging stations. Nayax Ltd. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.

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.