EZCORP Inc (NASDAQ:EZPW)
EZCORP, Inc. (EZPW), a pawn and consumer loan company yesterday announced that they are going to sell Prestaciones Finmart to Alpha Holding for $50 million. The transaction is expected to closed on or before September 30, 2016.
EZCORP, Inc. CEO’s Comments
EZCORP Chief Executive Officer Stuart Grimshaw said:
“We have been consistently executing the three year strategic program we announced in July 2015 to focus on meeting our customers’ need for cash better than anyone else in the industry, optimizing our pawn businesses and achieving returns on investment above our cost of equity. After the sale of Grupo Finmart, 99% of our revenue will be generated from our U.S. and Mexico pawn businesses.”
Mr Grimshaw said: “Grupo Finmart is a business with great people and I would like to acknowledge the team who have worked tirelessly to both manage the business and work closely with EZCORP, AlphaCredit and our advisers to execute this transaction. We’re pleased that a buyer of AlphaCredit’s caliber emerged following a competitive bidding process and we believe they will be able to maximize the value of Grupo Finmart.” Globe Newswire
EZPW Technical Analysis
EZPW opened trading yesterday at $7.34 which was down from the previous days trading of $7.40. EZPW closed trading yesterday at $7.64 and spiked up after market to $8.00, equivalent to a 5% increase from the closing price. Taking a look at the daily chart we can see that EZPW is trading near its 52 week high price of $8.70 . Taking a closer look at the daily chart we can see that EZPW has been on an overall upward trend dating back to April 5th when it traded at $3.14. EZPW has a float of 45.21 million shares and traded below the normal daily trading volume on Wednesday. For trading purposes, I would like to see EZPW open trading on Thursday above $7.85 and if it does I would be looking to take a long position at the bell. My stop loss would be $0.15 from my entry position fearing anything more than that and the stock would start to fill in the gap up.
Company Profile
EZCORP, Inc. provides pawn and consumer loans in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The company operates in four segments: U.S. Pawn, Mexico Pawn, Grupo Finmart, and Other International. It offers pawn loans, which are non-recourse loans collateralized by tangible personal property, such as jewelry, consumer electronics, power tools, sporting goods, and musical instruments; and sells merchandise, including collateral forfeited from pawn lending operations and used merchandise purchased from customers.
The company also provides payroll withholding loans or unsecured consumer loans, and unsecured installment consumer loans, as well as financial services. As of September 30, 2015, it operated approximately 834 locations comprising 522 United States pawn stores under the EZPAWN or Value Pawn & Jewelry names; 232 Mexico pawn stores under the Empeño Fácil name; 53 Grupo Finmart locations in Mexico; and 27 CASHMAX financial services stores in Canada. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.