FBR Capital Upgrades EZCORP (EZPW) to Market Perform

FBR Capital upgraded EZCORP (NASDAQ: EZPW) from Underperform to Market Perform with a price target of $17.50 (unchanged). Analyst Bob Ramsey sees less risk as the company shifts a larger portion of gold to retail vs scrap.

"EZCORP will shift a significant amount of gold/jewelry disposition from scrap to its retail channel, boosting margins, although deferred somewhat because retail sales take longer than scrapping. We now model gold scrapping to generate just 6% of pretax earnings (down from 26% in F2Q13), which significantly reduces EZCORP's
gold exposure risk, and we expect that earnings expectations for the company will
be reset to a more achievable level," said Ramsey.

"The company also announced that it is closing more than 100 stores in Mexico and Canada with marginal or negative profitability, which should further help profitability over time," added the analyst.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on EZCORP click here. For more ratings news on EZCORP click here.

Shares of EZCORP closed at $16.91 yesterday.

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