The Rent-to-Own Industry | A Legislative Resource

ent-to-own’s supposedly “exorbitant” profits have been a primary point of criticism from the industry’s detractors—but the numbers show that RTO profits are in fact lower than many corporations in the U.S. This chart represents a sampling of public companies and their profit margins as reported in their SEC public filings. Included are two public rent-to-own companies—Rent-A-Center and Aaron’s. Note that the profit margins for both rent-to-own companies on the list are much lower than the profits earned by such public corporations as Microsoft, McDonald’s and General Electric. Click here to download a PDF of this profit-comparison chart.

Corporation	Symbol	Volume	Operating income	Net profit margin

Microsoft	MSFT	$44.3 billion	$12.6 billion	28.5%

McDonald’s	MCD	$21.6 billion	$2.9 billion	13.31%

General Electric	GE	$163.3 billion	$20.8 billion	12.7%

Abercrombie & Fitch	ANF	$3.3 billion	$4.22 Million	12.7%

Apple	AAPL	$19.3 billion	$1.9 billion	10.3%

Nike	NKE	$14.9 billion	$1.39 billion	9.3%

Starbucks	SBUX	$8.2 billion	$612.3 million	7.46%

Hilton	HLT	$8.1 billion	$572 million	7.0%

Home Depot	HD	$90.8 billion	$5.7 billion	6.3%

Aaron’s	RNT	$1.3 billion	$78.6 million	5.93%

Brinker	EAT	4.1 billion	$212.3 million	5.1%

Target	TGT	59.5 billion	$2.8 billion	4.7%

Dell	DELL	57.1 billion	$2.6 billion	4.58%

Rent-A-Center	RCII	$2.4 billion	$103.1 million	4.24%

Best Buy	BBY	$35.9 billion	$1.4 billion	3.84%

Wal-Mart	WMT	$348.7 billion	$12.2 billion	3.62%

Haverty	HVT	$859.1 million	$16 million	1.86%

Costco	COST	$62.4 billion	$1.1 billion	1.73%


	- - - - - - - APRO: The Association of Progressive Rental Organizations— the official voice of the rent-to-own industry ounded in 1980, APRO is the national, non-profit trade association advocating and representing the rent-to-own industry before the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, courts, media, Wall Street and the public. Click here to contact an APRO representative.