Analyzing EZCORP (NASDAQ:EZPW) & Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH)

Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) and EZCORP (NASDAQ:EZPW) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bread Financial and EZCORP”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bread Financial	$4.70 billion	0.82	$518.00 million	$12.82	7.86
EZCORP	$1.27 billion	1.54	$109.61 million	$1.98	16.14

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

Profitability

This table compares Bread Financial and EZCORP’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bread Financial	11.95%	18.42%	2.76%
EZCORP	9.97%	13.99%	7.49%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.5% of Bread Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.8% of EZCORP shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Bread Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of EZCORP shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Bread Financial has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, EZCORP has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Bread Financial and EZCORP, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bread Financial	1	7	8	0	2.44
EZCORP	0	2	6	0	2.75

Bread Financial presently has a consensus target price of $112.29, suggesting a potential upside of 11.40%. EZCORP has a consensus target price of $38.80, suggesting a potential upside of 21.40%. Given EZCORP’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe EZCORP is more favorable than Bread Financial.

About Bread Financial

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. provides tech-forward payment and lending solutions to customers and consumer-based industries in North America. It offers credit card and other loans financing services, including risk management solutions, account origination, and funding services for private label and co-brand credit card programs, as well as through Bread partnerships; and Comenity-branded general purpose cash-back credit. The company also manages and services the loans it originates for private label, co-brand, and general-purpose credit card programs, and installment loans and split-pay products; and provides marketing, and data and analytics services. In addition, it offers an enhanced digital suite that includes a unified software development kit, which provides access to its suite of products, as well as promotes credit payment options earlier in the shopping experience. Further, the company through Bread, a digital payments platform and robust suite of application programming interfaces allows merchants and partners to integrate online point-of-sale financing and other digital payment products. It offers its products under the Bread CashbackTM, Bread PayTM, and Bread SavingsTM brands. The company was formerly known as Alliance Data Systems Corporation and changed its name to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. in March 2022. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

About EZCORP

EZCORP, Inc. provides pawn services in the United States and Latin America. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Pawn, Latin America Pawn, and Other Investments. The company offers pawn loans collateralized by tangible personal property, jewelry, consumer electronics, tools, sporting goods, and musical instruments. It also retails merchandise, primarily collateral forfeited from pawn lending operations and pre-owned merchandise purchased from customers. In addition, the company provides EZ+, a web-based application that allow customers to manage their pawn transactions, layaways, and loyalty rewards online. Further, it operates under the EZPAWN, Value Pawn & Jewelry, Empeño Fácil, Cash Apoyo Efectivo, GuatePrenda, and MaxiEfectivo brands. EZCORP, Inc. was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.