Which Is a Better Investment, FirstCash Holdings, Inc. or Synchrony Financial Stock?

By Michael Rose
July 31, 2026
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Sifting through countless of stocks in the Consumer Finance industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc.

Synchrony Financial, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer financial services company in the United States. The company provides credit products, such as credit cards, commercial credit products, and consumer installment loans. It also offers private label credit cards, dual and general purpose co-branded cards, short- and long-term installment loans, and consumer banking products; and deposit products, including certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, and sweep and affinity deposits, as well as accepts deposits through third-party firms. In addition, the company provides debt cancellation products to its credit card customers through online and mobile channels; and healthcare payments and financing solutions under the CareCredit and Walgreens brands; payments and financing solutions in the apparel, specialty retail, outdoor, music, and luxury industries, such as American Eagle, Dick's Sporting Goods, Guitar Center, Pandora, Polaris, Suzuki, and Sweetwater. It offers its credit products through programs established with a group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations, and healthcare service providers; and deposit products through various channels, such as digital and print. It serves digital, health and wellness, retail, home, auto, telecommunications, pet, outdoor, and other industries. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

FirstCash Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates retail pawn stores in the United States, Mexico, rest of Latin America, and the United Kingdom. The company operates through four segments: U.S. Pawn, Latin America Pawn, U.K. 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 and over-the-counter purchases 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.

Latest Consumer Finance and Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings, Inc. Stock News

As of July 30, 2026, Synchrony Financial had a $25.1 billion market capitalization, compared to the Consumer Finance median of $1.2 million. Synchrony Financial’s stock is down 9.2% in 2026, up 4% in the previous five trading days and up 8.23% in the past year.

Currently, Synchrony Financial’s price-earnings ratio is 7.9. Synchrony Financial’s trailing 12-month revenue is $9.9 billion with a 35.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 0.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $9.383 per share for the current fiscal year. Synchrony Financial currently has a 1.8% dividend yield.

As of July 30, 2026, FirstCash Holdings, Inc. had a $8.8 billion market cap, putting it in the 76th percentile of all stocks. FirstCash Holdings, Inc.’s stock is up 28% in 2026, up 4.6% in the previous five trading days and up 63.83% in the past year.

Currently, FirstCash Holdings, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 23.0. FirstCash Holdings, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.1 billion with a 9.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 29.4%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $11.286 per share for the current fiscal year. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. currently has a 0.8% dividend yield.

How We Compare Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company Ticker Value
Synchrony Financial SYF A
FirstCash Holdings, Inc. FCFS C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Synchrony Financial has a Value Score of 92, which is Deep Value. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a Value Score of 52, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: Synchrony Financial

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, Synchrony Financial is considered to have better value than FirstCash Holdings, Inc.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, Synchrony Financial could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company Ticker Quality
Synchrony Financial SYF C
FirstCash Holdings, Inc. FCFS A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Synchrony Financial has a Quality Score of 51, which is Average. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a Quality Score of 87, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: FirstCash Holdings, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Synchrony Financial. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, FirstCash Holdings, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company Ticker Earnings Estimate
Synchrony Financial SYF B
FirstCash Holdings, Inc. FCFS B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Synchrony Financial has a Earnings Estimate Score of 66, which is Positive. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 70, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, both Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. have a grade of B. For those focusing solely on a company’s estimate revisions, other financial metrics will need to be evaluated to determine whether Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings or Inc. is a better fit.

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Other Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Quality and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Momentum.

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Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Synchrony Financial stock has a Value Score of 92, Estimate Revisions Score of 66 and Quality Score of 51.

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 52, Estimate Revisions Score of 70 and Quality Score of 87.

Comparing Synchrony Financial, FirstCash Holdings and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

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AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.



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