Is it Safe to Keep Your PROG Holdings (PRG) Position?

Diamond Hill Capital, an investment management firm, published its “Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund” third-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The portfolio outpaced the Russell 2000® Index in the quarter, delivering nearly a 2% positive return against the index’s negative return and adding to year-to-date outperformance.  You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRG) and discussed its stance on the firm. PROG Holdings, Inc. is a Salt Lake City, Utah-based furniture stores company with a $3.1 billion market capitalization. PRG delivered a -11.79% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -11.02%. The stock closed at $47.52 per share on November 12, 2021.

Here is what Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund has to say about PROG Holdings, Inc.  in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“Bottom contributors in Q3 included PROG. Rental and leasing services company PROG holdings is the largest virtual lease-to-own provider in the U.S., with a diverse mix of both bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce retail partners. PROG was pressured in the quarter by investor worries over rising competition from new point-of-sale offerings relative to legacy lease-to-own offerings where PROG is a market leader. We believe PROG’s core lease-to-own offering remains a unique market niche, and it continues making progress with large retail partnerships, notably Best Buy and Lowes, that are still in the early innings of growth.”

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Based on our calculations, PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRG) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PRG was in 28 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first half of 2021, compared to 33 funds in the previous quarter. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRG) delivered a 5.88% return in the past 3 months.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.