One of the most dreaded feelings for an investor is when the stock they just bought is overvalued, or they missed out on an undervalued opportunity by not acting fast enough.

But what if you had the insights to effectively evaluate a company like Rent-A-Center Inc before investing? Investing requires a certain perspective to avoid being overly confident in a company or worried about cyclical changes. A smart way to take the guesswork out of knowing when to buy or sell Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock is to have the right tools and resources as well as a clear monitoring process.

In this article, we go over a few key elements for understanding Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock price such as:

• Current stock price and volume
• Stock price history
• Upgrades and downgrades from analysts
• Stock price momentum as measured by its relative strength

About Rent-A-Center Inc (RCII)

Before we jump into Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock price, history, target price and what caused it to recently dip, let’s take a look at some background.

Rent-A-Center, Inc. is a furniture and electronics rent-to-own operator in North America. The Company is focused on providing products, such as consumer electronics, appliances, computers, smartphones and furniture, under rental purchase agreements. The Company’s segments include Rent-A-Center Business, Acima, Mexico and Franchising. The Rent-A-Center Business segment consists of lease-to-own stores in the United States and Puerto Rico that lease household durable goods to customers on a lease-to-own basis. The Acima segment offers the lease-to-own transaction through virtual offering solutions across e-commerce, digital, and mobile channels, and through staffed and unstaffed kiosks located within such retailer’s locations. The Mexico segment consists of lease-to-own stores in Mexico that lease household durable goods to customers on a lease-to-own basis. The Franchising segment is engaged in the sale of rental merchandise to its franchisees.

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Rent-A-Center Inc’s Stock Price as of Market Close

As of February 21, 2023, 4:00 PM CST, Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock price was $26.26.

Rent-A-Center Inc is down 6.15% from its previous closing price of $27.98.

During the last market session, Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock traded between $27.70 and $28.56. Currently, there are 55.38 million shares of Rent-A-Center Inc stock available for purchase.

Rent-A-Center Inc’s price-earnings (P/E) ratio is currently at 93.8, which is high compared to the Retailers - Miscellaneous Specialty industry median of 17.5. The price-earnings ratio gauges market expectation of future performance by relating a stock’s current share price to its earnings per share.

Rent-A-Center Inc Stock Price History

Rent-A-Center Inc’s (RCII) price is currently down 2.34% so far this month.

During the month of February, Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock price has reached a high of $30.00 and a low of $26.03.

Over the last year, Rent-A-Center Inc has hit prices as high as $41.10 and as low as $16.82. Year to date, Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock is down 45.34%.

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What Caused Rent-A-Center Inc Stock’s Price to Dip?

Stock prices are primarily based on seller supply and buyer demand. But have you ever wondered about what other factors affect a stock's price?

One of the most common factors that can drastically impact a stock’s price is analyst upgrades and downgrades. When an analyst changes their opinion of a stock by upgrading or downgrading their rating, it often leads to a sudden stock price adjustment. As of February 17, 2023, there were 2 analysts who downgraded Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock and 0 analysts who upgraded over the last month.

Additionally, you'll want to evaluate Rent-A-Center Inc’s financial health and valuation. It is possible for a stock to appear cheap based on one valuation metric but appear expensive on another. It is also possible for one valuation ratio to be associated with outperforming stocks during certain periods of time but not others.

Therefore, AAII developed a composite valuation to help resolve such issues. AAII’s Value Grade analyzes six distinct variables: price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, price-earnings (P/E) ratio, the ratio of enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA), shareholder yield, price-to-book-value (P/B) ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) ratio.

Rent-A-Center Inc’s current valuation based on AAII’s Value Grade is a B, which means it is considered to be Value.

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Lastly, news and media coverage as well as recent press reports about the company or its industry may cause stock prices to fluctuate. You can check out the most recent news articles about Rent-A-Center Inc (RCII) by visiting AAII Stock Evaluator.

Relative Price Strength of Rent-A-Center Inc

Relative price strength addresses the relationship between a stock price’s trend and the price trend of the market. This ratio is expressed as a percentage and helps investors understand a company’s momentum as well as its value. You can use relative price strength to select investments that have been outperforming the market or a specific benchmark.

For AAII’s Momentum Grade, a weighted relative price strength is calculated. The weighted four-quarter relative price strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40%, and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

As of February 17, 2023, Rent-A-Center Inc has a weighted four-quarter relative price strength of 1.39%, which translates to a Momentum Score of 55 and is considered to be Average.

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Rent-A-Center Inc Stock Price: Bottom Line

As of February 21, 2023, Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock price is $26.26, which is down 6.15% from its previous closing price.

At AAII, we stress that investors should never buy or sell a stock solely based on its stock price. Past returns do not guarantee future performance. Therefore, you should consider multiple ratios, fundamentals and analytics before making a decision. Whether you decide it’s a good time to buy or sell Rent-A-Center Inc’s stock based on its stock price forecast is ultimately up to you.

It’s important to understand that stock prices are driven by a variety of factors, but ultimately the price at any given moment is due to the supply and demand in the market. Stock price overviews, like the one you just read, only give you a small snapshot of a company’s performance, value and momentum.

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