Aaron’s Inc. passes the initial requirements of both the Defensive Investor and the Enterprising Investor. Specifically, the Defensive Investor is only initially concerned with the high PEmg ratio, while the Enterprising Investor has no initial concerns. As a result, all value investors should feel very comfortable proceeding to the next part of the analysis, which is a determination of the company’s intrinsic value.
When it comes to that valuation, it is critical to consider the company’s earnings history. In this case, it has grown its EPSmg (normalized earnings) from $1.35 in 2011 to only an estimated $1.74 for 2015. This level of demonstrated growth does not support the market’s implied estimate for annual earnings growth of 6.29% over the next 7-10 years.
In recent years, the company’s actual growth in EPSmg has averaged around 5.77% annually, but the ModernGraham valuation model reduces the actual growth to a more conservative figure when making an estimate, and returns an estimate of intrinsic value well below the current price, indicating that Aaron’s is overvalued at the present time.
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Disclaimer: The author did not hold a position in any company mentioned in this article at the time of publication and had no intention of changing that position within the next 72 hours. Logo taken from Wikipedia for the sole purpose of identifying the company; this article is not affiliated with the company in any manner.
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