FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $154.40.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on FCFS shares. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 price objective on FirstCash in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Loop Capital downgraded FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday.

FirstCash Price Performance

NASDAQ FCFS opened at $151.79 on Tuesday. FirstCash has a one year low of $100.24 and a one year high of $158.93. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $143.44 and a 200 day moving average of $133.24. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.21.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.13. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%.The company had revenue of $830.62 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $820.42 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.37 EPS. FirstCash’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This is an increase from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. FirstCash’s payout ratio is presently 25.81%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 69,024 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.49, for a total value of $9,559,133.76. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 932,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $129,205,353.42. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director James H. Graves sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total value of $807,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,846 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,132,237.76. This represents a 27.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,500 shares of company stock valued at $15,493,610 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 980,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,552,000 after purchasing an additional 11,534 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 888,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,945,000 after purchasing an additional 112,349 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 713,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,477,000 after purchasing an additional 65,308 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 658,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,871,000 after purchasing an additional 8,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 640,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,067,000 after purchasing an additional 79,930 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

About FirstCash

FirstCash Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates retail pawn stores in the United States, Mexico, and rest of Latin America. The company operates in three segments: U.S. Pawn, Latin America Pawn, and Retail POS Payment Solutions segments. Its pawn stores lend money on the collateral of pledged personal property, including jewelry, electronics, tools, appliances, sporting goods, and musical instruments; and retails merchandise acquired through collateral forfeitures on forfeited pawn loans and over-the-counter purchases of merchandise directly from customers.