At a glance
Upbound Group Inc. is worth $985.9M, about 14 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 8.7% to $4.70B in fiscal 2025, with 1.6% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 10.8% a year. It pays a 9.23% dividend yield, raised every year for at least 7 years, and returned $919.1M to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −21.8% over the past year with dividends reinvested, against +11.5% for the S&P 500.
The business in plain English
Upbound Group, formerly named Rent-A-Center, Inc., runs a lease-to-own business in the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Lease-to-own means a customer rents brand-name goods, such as Ashley furniture, Samsung electronics, Whirlpool appliances or Lenovo computers, and pays weekly or monthly. No credit history is generally required. The customer can return the item at any time with nothing owed beyond payments already due. To own it, they renew for 7 to 30 months or pay a lump sum early. Renewing all the way to ownership costs more than paying the retail price up front.
In fiscal 2025, which ended December 31, 2025, revenue was about $4.7 billion. Acima, the largest segment at 53.5%, offers lease-to-own through thousands of other retailers, in their stores and online, and directly to consumers. It pays retail prices for goods but has historically had lower overhead. Rent-A-Center, at 40.4%, runs company-owned and franchised stores plus websites such as rentacenter.com. It pays wholesale prices and often rents an item more than once before a customer owns it.
Brigit, acquired on January 31, 2025, added 4.4% of revenue. Its app offers earned wage access (advances on pay a user has already earned), credit-building loans made through a partner bank, and paid subscription tiers. Mexico supplied the remaining 1.7%.
Price history
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UPBD -21.8% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By business segment
| Acima | $2.51B | 53.5% |
| Rent-A-Center | $1.90B | 40.4% |
| Brigit | $206.0M | 4.4% |
| Mexico | $79.4M | 1.7% |
Latest results
- In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $1.15B, down 1.6% from a year earlier, and net income was $34.3M (+159.2%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $4.70B (+8.7% year over year; +10.8% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 1.6% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +10.8% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 4.8% weak |
| Free cash flow margin | 5.1% watch |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 10.5% watch |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 2.2% weak |
| Cash and investments | $125.1M (debt isn’t tagged in a standard way in the filings, so net cash can’t be shown) |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $2.81B | $208.1M | $202.0M |
| FY2021 | $4.58B | $134.9M | $329.8M |
| FY2022 | $4.25B | $12.4M | $407.1M |
| FY2023 | $3.99B | $-5.2M | $146.9M |
| FY2024 | $4.32B | $123.5M | $48.4M |
| FY2025 | $4.70B | $73.2M | $238.7M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $985.9M |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13.5 |
| Dividend yield | 9.23% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Upbound Group’s market value went from $1.84B at the end of 2023 to $985.9M on Oct 28, 2026, down 47%; since the end of 2025 it is down 3%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $985.9M | -3.0% |
| 2025 | $1.02B | -36.3% |
| 2024 | $1.60B | -13.5% |
| 2023 | $1.84B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPBD price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +2.9% | -21.8% | -6.7% | — | — |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +2.9% |
| 2025 | -35.4% |
| 2024 | -9.9% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Before this security existed |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Before this security existed |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (25 read): 4 open-market purchases ($93K) and 1 sales ($189K).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 21, 2026 | Anthony J Blasquez EVP-RAC | sell | $189K |
| Oct 27, 2026 | Jeffrey J Brown Director | buy | $38K |
| Jul 7, 2026 | Jeffrey J Brown Director | buy | $37K |
| Oct 27, 2026 | Jeffrey J Brown Director | buy | $9K |
| Jul 7, 2026 | Jeffrey J Brown Director | buy | $9K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 13.7% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 7.99% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| IEQ CAPITAL, LLC | 7.9% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| FMR LLC | 5.7% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Dimensional Fund Advisors LP | 5.4% | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Allred Aaron R | 3.1% | Jun 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in UPBD
| DEEP Acquirers Small and Micro Deep Value ETF | 0.97% |
| DGRS WisdomTree US Smallcap Quality Dividend Growth Fund | 0.96% |
| ROSC Hartford Multifactor Small Cap ETF | 0.51% |
| RFDA RiverFront Dynamic US Dividend Advantage ETF | 0.45% |
| SFLO VictoryShares Small Cap Free Cash Flow ETF | 0.45% |
| FYT First Trust Small Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund | 0.38% |
| RZV Invesco S&P SmallCap 600® Pure Value ETF | 0.37% |
| SMDX Intech S&P Small-Mid Cap Diversified Alpha ETF | 0.34% |
What could go wrong
- Struggling customers can stop paying quickly. Upbound serves consumers with limited or poor credit. Inflation, job losses or weaker spending can quickly cut demand and lead more customers to miss payments or return leased goods.
- Approval models could misjudge who can pay. Acima and Rent-A-Center approve customers with automated decision tools, generally without a credit score. The company warns economic shifts can change customer behavior so these tools stop predicting who will keep paying.
- Heavy regulation and a history of enforcement. Lease-to-own rules vary by state, and regulators are increasingly focused on the industry. Past legal and regulatory cases have brought penalties, and Brigit must comply with a Federal Trade Commission settlement.
- Acima depends on partner retailers. Acima, over half of revenue, works through other retailers. Losing retailers to competitors, or falling behind on the virtual leasing and approval technology they connect to, could slow the largest segment.
- Brigit adds bank-partner and repayment risk. Brigit's credit-building loans are made by a partner bank, and its wage advances depend on customers repaying. Losing a bank partner, or missing the acquisition's expected benefits, could hurt results.
- Significant debt, partly at variable rates. The company describes its debt as significant, with some at variable interest rates and a credit line capped by asset values. Higher rates or tighter borrowing limits could squeeze operating cash.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Executive or board change; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Other company announcement
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
- Executive or board change
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Item 5.04
For income and retirement investors
Upbound has raised its regular dividend for 7 straight years, from $1.18 a share in fiscal 2020 to $1.56 in fiscal 2025, about 5.7% a year. The yield was 9.23% as of October 28, 2026, partly because the share price has fallen. The payout is stretched: fiscal 2025 dividends equaled 120% of net income, though only about 37% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business). The company says neither dividends nor buybacks are assured.
Share buybacks totaled $515 million from fiscal 2021 to 2025, with none in 2024 or 2025, and the share count fell 12.3% between July 2021 and July 2026. The stock fell 35.4% in 2025 and dropped as much as 54.1% from a peak in the three years to October 28, 2026. The price history available for this page starts too late to cover the 2008, 2020 and 2022 downturns. A single stock carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Upbound Group make money?
Mostly by leasing brand-name furniture, appliances, electronics and computers to customers who pay weekly or monthly and can return items at any time. In fiscal 2025, which ended December 31, 2025, revenue was about $4.7 billion. Acima, which offers lease-to-own through other retailers, supplied 53.5%. Rent-A-Center stores and websites supplied 40.4%, the Brigit financial app 4.4%, and Mexico 1.7%. Customers who renew all the way to ownership pay more than the retail price.
Does Upbound Group raise its dividend every year?
It has for 7 straight years. The regular dividend rose from $1.18 a share in fiscal 2020 to $1.56 in fiscal 2025, about 5.7% a year. In fiscal 2025, though, dividends paid equaled about 120% of net income, so the company paid out more than it earned on paper, while using about 37% of free cash flow. Its annual report says there is no assurance about future dividends.
Why is Upbound's dividend yield so high?
Partly because the share price has fallen while the dividend kept rising. The yield was 9.23% as of October 28, 2026. The stock lost 35.4% in 2025 and 21.8% in the year to October 28, 2026. Fiscal 2025 diluted earnings were $1.25 a share, below the $1.56 dividend per share. A yield this high can signal that investors doubt the payout will last at its present level.
Is Upbound Group the same company as Rent-A-Center?
Yes. Upbound Group was formerly named Rent-A-Center, Inc., and Rent-A-Center is now one of its four segments. That segment runs company-owned and franchised stores plus websites such as rentacenter.com, and it supplied 40.4% of fiscal 2025 revenue. The larger Acima segment, at 53.5%, offers lease-to-own through other retailers. The company is based in Plano, Texas, and its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker UPBD.
What is Brigit, and why did Upbound acquire it?
Brigit is a financial app Upbound acquired on January 31, 2025. It offers Instant Cash, which advances wages a customer has already earned, plus Credit Builder loans made through a partner bank and paid Brigit Plus and Brigit Premium subscriptions. It takes Upbound beyond leasing into other financial products for underserved consumers. Brigit brought in about $206 million, or 4.4% of fiscal 2025 revenue, and must comply with a Federal Trade Commission settlement.