American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in The Aaron’s Company, Inc. (NYSE:AAN)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The Aaron’s Company, Inc. (NYSE:AAN) by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 494,868 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 76,905 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.63% of Aaron’s worth $5,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gladius Capital Management LP grew its stake in Aaron’s by 80.0% during the 3rd quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP now owns 2,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,157 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in Aaron’s by 231.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in Aaron’s during the 2nd quarter valued at about $61,000. UBS Group AG grew its stake in Aaron’s by 430.2% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 8,539 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Aaron’s during the 3rd quarter valued at about $67,000. 91.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on AAN. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $7.00 price target on shares of Aaron’s in a research note on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com upgraded Aaron’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 16th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Aaron’s in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Aaron’s from $12.00 to $9.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Stephens upgraded Aaron’s from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.11.

Aaron’s Stock Performance

Shares of AAN stock opened at $7.41 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $233.34 million, a P/E ratio of 92.63 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s 50 day moving average is $9.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The Aaron’s Company, Inc. has a 12-month low of $6.72 and a 12-month high of $16.16.

Aaron’s (NYSE:AAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by ($0.29). The business had revenue of $529.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $542.07 million. Aaron’s had a return on equity of 3.59% and a net margin of 0.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. Analysts expect that The Aaron’s Company, Inc. will post 0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aaron’s Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.75%. Aaron’s’s payout ratio is currently 625.00%.

About Aaron’s

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Aaron’s Company, Inc (NYSE: AAN) is a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-purchase solutions. Aaron’s engages in direct-to-consumer sales and lease ownership of furniture, appliances, consumer electronics and accessories through its approximately 1,300 company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform, Aarons.com.