FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on shares of FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $200.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a report on Monday, August 18th. Loop Capital lowered shares of FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 target price on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, FirstCash presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $154.40.

FirstCash Trading Down 1.8%

NASDAQ FCFS opened at $149.08 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.21, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. FirstCash has a 1-year low of $100.24 and a 1-year high of $158.93. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $142.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $132.90. The company has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 0.69.

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

FirstCash Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other FirstCash news, Director James H. Graves sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $807,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 15,846 shares in the company, valued at $2,132,237.76. This trade represents a 27.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 30,976 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.33, for a total value of $4,315,886.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 901,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,673,152.06. This represents a 3.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 111,500 shares of company stock worth $15,493,610. Corporate insiders own 2.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in FirstCash by 0.5% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,289,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional grew its position in FirstCash by 24.7% during the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 434 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in FirstCash by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 5,552 shares of the company’s stock valued at $668,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC raised its position in FirstCash by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,024,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MBM Wealth Consultants LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstCash by 1.6% in the first quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,757 shares of the company’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.