EZCORP, Inc. (NASDAQ:EZPW) Short Interest Update

EZCORP, Inc. (NASDAQ:EZPW) saw a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 8,410,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the September 15th total of 7,700,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 488,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 17.2 days. Currently, 16.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EZCORP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in EZCORP by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,301,392 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $37,405,000 after purchasing an additional 34,821 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of EZCORP by 2.4% in the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,593,128 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $29,380,000 after buying an additional 60,329 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of EZCORP by 44.4% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,460,564 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $15,292,000 after buying an additional 449,360 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of EZCORP by 59.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 843,105 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,553,000 after buying an additional 314,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourth Sail Capital LP boosted its position in shares of EZCORP by 21.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP now owns 718,947 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,527,000 after buying an additional 127,070 shares in the last quarter. 99.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of EZCORP in a research note on Friday, October 4th.

EZCORP Price Performance

EZCORP stock traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $11.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 312,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 517,357. The firm has a market capitalization of $648.32 million, a PE ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 1.02. EZCORP has a fifty-two week low of $7.70 and a fifty-two week high of $12.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 2.59.

EZCORP (NASDAQ:EZPW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $281.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $281.69 million. EZCORP had a net margin of 6.87% and a return on equity of 10.64%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that EZCORP will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current year.

EZCORP Company Profile

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.