Short Interest in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Grows By 28.8%

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 925,600 shares, a growth of 28.8% from the October 31st total of 718,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 246,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

FirstCash Price Performance

FCFS stock traded down $1.75 during trading on Monday, reaching $107.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 185,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 248,098. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 4.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company’s fifty day moving average is $109.79 and its 200-day moving average is $111.86. The company has a market capitalization of $4.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.87 and a beta of 0.64. FirstCash has a 1 year low of $101.62 and a 1 year high of $133.64.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $837.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $843.94 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.97% and a net margin of 7.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that FirstCash will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 28.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen decreased their target price on FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 28th. Stephens initiated coverage on FirstCash in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $137.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Activity

In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 600 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.07, for a total value of $72,042.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,735,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $568,560,627.01. The trade was a 0.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.68, for a total transaction of $211,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,375,401.20. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,974 shares of company stock worth $688,080. Insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FCFS. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 18.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,712,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $770,627,000 after acquiring an additional 1,037,601 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 2.4% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,344,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,879,000 after purchasing an additional 55,919 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of FirstCash by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,386,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,196,000 after buying an additional 28,415 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in FirstCash by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,057,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,867,000 after purchasing an additional 15,780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in FirstCash by 3.2% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 631,303 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,211,000 after buying an additional 19,868 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.