FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Sees Large Volume Increase

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS – Get Rating) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Friday . Approximately 121,412 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 42% from the previous session’s volume of 211,008 shares.The stock last traded at $91.30 and had previously closed at $93.05.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on FCFS shares. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of FirstCash from $110.00 to $108.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. Stephens raised shares of FirstCash from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a report on Thursday, January 5th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group started coverage on shares of FirstCash in a report on Wednesday, December 14th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $88.00 target price for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.20.

FirstCash Stock Down 3.8 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 3.83 and a quick ratio of 2.85. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.95. The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.67 and a beta of 0.79.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $749.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $752.47 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 13.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 49.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 5.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 14th were given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 13th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 38,998 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.28, for a total value of $3,442,743.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,003,083 shares in the company, valued at $706,512,167.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 595,628 shares of company stock worth $53,164,121 over the last ninety days. 19.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 98,847.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,317,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $375,197,000 after buying an additional 4,312,712 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in FirstCash by 19.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,396,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $309,282,000 after purchasing an additional 730,072 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in FirstCash by 5.8% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,119,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $494,881,000 after purchasing an additional 389,095 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 1,068.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 231,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,277,000 after acquiring an additional 211,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,285,782 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,657,000 after acquiring an additional 200,845 shares in the last quarter. 78.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About FirstCash

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FirstCash Holdings, Inc operates retail pawn stores in the United States and Latin America. 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.