FirstCash Holdings, Inc. FCFS

Competitive advantage analysis · financial-services

Lender Specialized
Overall moat score
59/100
Moderate

About FirstCash Holdings, Inc.

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, … Full FCFS analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Disciplined Risk Management Risk management appears disciplined (asset quality score 0.73).

Key risks

  • Revenue Concentration Risk Revenue concentration is concerning (growth stability 0.34).

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Funding & Return Stability

Moderate
70

Where FCFS ranks in Credit Services

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. ranks #17 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services by moat score — the top 35%. The widest moat in the group is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN) at 77/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near FCFS in Credit Services
# Company Moat score Rating
13 World Acceptance Corporation WRLD 62/100 Moderate
14 X Financial XYF 60/100 Moderate
15 Atlanticus Holdings Corporation ATLC 60/100 Moderate
16 Atlanticus Holdings Corporation ATLCP 60/100 Moderate
17 FirstCash Holdings, Inc. FCFS 59/100 Moderate
18 SoFi Technologies, Inc. SOFI 59/100 Moderate
19 OppFi Inc. OPFI 58/100 Moderate
20 EZCORP, Inc. EZPW 58/100 Moderate
21 LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. LX 57/100 Moderate

See every Banks & Lenders company ranked by moat score →

How FCFS scores on the Lender Specialized defenses

Funding & Return Stability

Score 70 · 22% of the moat score

A lender without deposits buys all of its funding, so its first test is whether the business still earns a decent return when that funding gets dearer.

Lending Advantage

Score 68 · 18% of the moat score

Outside banking, a lending advantage usually comes from origination: a channel or a data edge that finds good borrowers more cheaply than rivals, or a niche such as subprime auto, student loans or agency mortgages where experience in underwriting and servicing is hard to copy.

Capital Strength

Score 57 · 20% of the moat score

Without deposit insurance or a central-bank backstop, equity is what keeps a lender in business when its lenders get nervous.

Cost Discipline

Score 56 · 16% of the moat score

Origination, servicing and collections are largely fixed-cost operations, so scale and automation decide how much of the spread survives to the bottom line.

Revenue Diversification

Score 23 · 14% of the moat score

A lender that earns only on the spread of one product is exposed to that product's cycle and to the market that funds it.

Risk Management

Score 82 · 10% of the moat score

Credit losses at a non-bank lender arrive late and all at once, and with borrowed funding they can turn into a liquidity problem in weeks.

How each Lender Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding FCFS's moat

What is FirstCash Holdings, Inc.'s moat score?

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (FCFS) scores 59 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #17 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services, the top 35%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 47 companies in Credit Services. Its strongest defense is Risk Management (82/100) and its weakest is Revenue Diversification (23/100).

How does FirstCash Holdings, Inc. compare with other Credit Services companies?

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. ranks #17 of 48 scored companies in Credit Services by moat score. The widest moat in Credit Services is Qifu Technology, Inc (QFIN) at 77/100. The companies ranked closest are Atlanticus Holdings Corporation (ATLCP) at 60 just above it and SoFi Technologies, Inc. (SOFI) at 59 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Lender Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 47 companies in Credit Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is FirstCash Holdings, Inc. scored with the Lender Specialized template?

Card and instalment lenders, mortgage originators and mortgage REITs make money the way a bank does, by earning more on what they lend than they pay for the money they lend, but they do not take deposits. They borrow in the debt markets instead: securitisations, warehouse lines, repo and bonds, money that has to be refinanced and repriced as rates move. The Lender template scores what decides whether such a business lasts: how well its returns hold up as funding costs change, what it lends against, how much equity stands behind the book, and whether it has been pricing credit honestly.

Which competitive defenses are measured for FirstCash Holdings, Inc.?

The Lender Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and FCFS scores: Funding & Return Stability (70), Lending Advantage (68), Capital Strength (57), Cost Discipline (56), Revenue Diversification (23), Risk Management (82). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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