This column is for investors willing to take more risk and potentially receive more reward.  The stocks mentioned in this column are not recommended to buy or sell.  They're brought to your attention so you can investigate them further to determine if they fit your risk profile.  Most of the stocks will have less than $1 billion of market capitalization, have more volatility than other stocks, and oftentimes no earnings.  And some will have tremendous stories.

December 4, 2009 - Cash America International Inc. (CSH-NYSE) engages in the ownership and operation of pawnshops in the United States and Mexico. The company provides pawn loans to individuals through its pawn lending operations. It also sells merchandise in its pawnshops, primarily personal property that has been forfeited in connection with its pawn lending operations.

The company offers check cashing services and other retail financial services, such as stored-value cards, money orders, and money transfers, as well as loan processing services for, and participating in, receivables associated with a bank issued line of credit made available by the bank on certain stored-value debit cards the bank issues.

As of December 31, 2008, it operated 613 pawnshops, including 486 owned units and 15 unconsolidated franchised units in 22 states in the United States, as well as 112 locations in central and southern Mexico. Cash America International also owned and operated 248 cash advance locations in 6 states; and 133 check cashing centers comprising 128 franchised and 5 company-owned check cashing centers in 16 states in the United States. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

You can imagine business is brisk for CSH. Recessions have a way of making people find cash whereever possible. But here's an interesting fact about CSH: its earnings increased long before the recession started.

They were $2.00 in 2006, then $2.61 in 2007. Last year, they were $2.70. This year 10 analysts have a consensus of $3.04, then $3.53 next year. Over the last 5 years, annual average earnings increases were 25.5%. For the next 5, analysts see that improvement slowing to 12.25%, on average, per year. For the final quarter of 2009, look for 98 cents a share vs 54 cents in the same quarter last year. Earnings will be announced on January 28, 2010. For the first quarter of next year, expect 85 cents a share compared to 79 cents in the first period of this year.

Revenues grew in the last 5 years at a rate of 14.5% a year, on average. Not quite as robust as earnings but still impressive. Over the next 5, look for 8%. In 2006, total revenues were $693.2 million, then went to $929.4 million. Last year, the registers rang up a total of $1.030 billion. Next year, analysts see $1.20 billion.

The stock took a beating from the middle of last year until March 9 of this year, going from $35 down to $11.60. It's up almost 200% from the lows. Can it keep going?

The fact that credit markets are still tight suggests that business will continue to prosper at CSH. CSH benefits in two ways from the current crisis: people who can't get credit need to borrow on their assets; they need to take advances on their pay checks. The finance fees from the advances are one source of revenues, the sale of the forfeited assets is another.

CSH is expanding in Mexico, adding 14 new locations in the third quarter alone, putting total stores where CSH has majority ownership at 145. Analysts believe the Cash America International will continue to grow at a faster rate than the domestic effort.

More numbers: Price to Sales is .93. Price to Book is 1.56. Operating margin for the last 12 months was 14.17% while Profit margin was 7.36%. Return on Equity was 13.26%. Return on assets was 8.25%. Total debt is $446.61 million or about 40% of capital. There's $28.53 million in cash. Current ratio is 4.812. Book value is $21.87. Beta is 1.51. There are 29.30 million shars outstanding with a float of 28.98. Insiders own about 1% of the shares. The annual dividend is 14 cents which gives a yield of .40%. The payout ratio is 5%.

The takeaway on CSH seems to be: it looks good as an investment for the next year or so, then caution is advised. If new state's statutes are passed to lower fees and rates, that will be a negative. But if the international effort is profitable enough and fast, that could compensate for lost domestic revenue. Management has proven it can deliver profits in good times and bad. Aggressive investors should find this stock of interest and worthy of more research.

- Company Web site: www.cashamerica.com

- Ted Allrich