Should You Consider Buying PROG Holdings (PRG) Shares?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Small Cap Value Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Small Cap Value Strategy outperformed the Russell 2000 Value Index, the Strategy’s benchmark, during the fourth quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy posted gains in nine of 11 sectors in which it was invested for the quarter. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments Small Cap Value Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1955, PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) is an Atlanta, Georgia-based lease-purchase solutions provider with a $1.5 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Steven A. Michaels. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) delivered a -35.91% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are down by -33.22%. The stock closed at $28.92 per share on March 29, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments Small Cap Value Strategy has to say about PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“A related topic, and one that we have mentioned over the last several years, is how the number of public companies impacts the pool of investment candidates we consider. The trend of a decline in public companies that started in the 1990s has reversed, as 2021 witnessed a two-decade record in number of offerings (as measured by the total offerings of U.S.-based operating companies) and a nearly doubling of proceeds compared to the 1999–2000 records. Meanwhile the offsetting factor, mergers and acquisitions, also had a strong showing with the second-highest total number of deals since the mid-1990s. A bigger pool of investment candidates and alternative ways to close price-tovalue gaps tend to be positive contributors for the Strategy. In 2021 we also observed the willingness of corporate managers and boards to take advantage of persistent price-to-value gaps: two of the Strategy’s holdings, (including) PROG Holdings, announced and executed sizeable tender offers for their shares.”

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Our calculations show that PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) was in 23 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 27 funds in the previous quarter. PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) delivered a -35.67% return in the past 3 months.

In November 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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