GLG News by Rent-to-Own Industry Experts

The increased disclosures required by FIN 48 are clearly uncovering some notable “red flags” and could potentially result in material cash ramifications for certain companies. As a result, I believe the new standard is an important one for investors to understand and assess for potential risks on companies...

A recent article in the WSJ discusses that a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate is probing at least 30 companies regarding past tax-cutting transactions – with the author commenting the investigation appears to have been sparked by the new accounting rule known as FIN 48. Three companies are specifically...

We’ve heard this story before. Two years ago when store performance was suffering, it was fuel cost. Here we go again. Demand drops and energy costs are to blame. Does anyone wonder what the real story is here? Could there be more to it than higher prices at the pump? Besides, gas is only a few percentage...

In this article Obopay is credited for impacting Western Union's share price. Obopay is one of many newer less expensive means of transferring funds domestically or internationally. Other emerging competitors spanning email/computer money transfer, mobile and ACH based services include: Xoom; Ikobo;...

Investors sold shares of Aaron Rents (RNT) yesterday in response to its Q2 earnings release and conference call. Aaron’s lowered FY 2007 guidance, reported lower than normal same store sales growth for the quarter, and discussed struggles in its new store openings initiative, all of which led to a 12%...

Adequately analyzing the balance sheet is an important step in the evaluation of a company – leading to (1) useful clues about future financial performance, (2) some notable warning signals and “red flags” and (3) uncovering some potential hidden assets and liabilities. A good example of “digging deeper”...

Last year, management at Aaron Rents committed to open 350 new stores by the end of 2007.  In its Q4 earnings call, RNT addressed questions about the purposes and logistics of the new opening timetable and announced that the expansion is on track, with plans to open 250 stores in 200...

An analyst listening to the recent RNT earnings call asked a simple question: "Why were retail sales down in Q4?" The answer is equally simple, and has some interesting implications.  Aaron's management commented on the decline in retail sales, the corresponding margin increase on customer payouts,...

Rent-A-Center management will focus in 2007 on completing the integration of 786 acquired Rentway stores into the Rent-A-Center system and continuing to add financial services in their stores.  These points of emphasis make it clear that the core rent-to-own business of RAC has matured to...

The nomination of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) to lead the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee could be bad news for the Rent to Own industry. Rep. Maloney previously co-sponsored a bill that would have characterized the RTO transaction as...