FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Upgraded at TD Cowen

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) was upgraded by equities researchers at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $145.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $130.00. TD Cowen’s target price points to a potential upside of 10.37% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Stephens upped their price objective on FirstCash from $131.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd.

FirstCash Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of FirstCash stock opened at $131.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $119.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.51. FirstCash has a 12-month low of $88.05 and a 12-month high of $131.46. The company has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 3.89, a quick ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.25. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.42% and a net margin of 6.96%. The business had revenue of $852.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $859.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. FirstCash’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 6.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 19,020 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.34, for a total transaction of $2,231,806.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,997,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,767,771.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 19,020 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.34, for a total transaction of $2,231,806.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,997,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,767,771.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.25, for a total value of $348,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 94,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,010,618.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 329,984 shares of company stock valued at $38,850,386 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 18.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 526.6% during the 4th quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 4,468 shares of the company’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 3,755 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in FirstCash during the 4th quarter worth about $1,752,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,062,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $440,332,000 after purchasing an additional 219,983 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in FirstCash during the 4th quarter worth about $1,868,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Company Profile

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.