Stock Repurchase Plan Initiated by FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS)

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, October 30th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 2.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

FirstCash Price Performance

Shares of FCFS opened at $158.45 on Friday. FirstCash has a fifty-two week low of $100.24 and a fifty-two week high of $163.16. The company has a market capitalization of $7.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.34 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $151.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.82. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.35. FirstCash had a net margin of 8.61% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The business had revenue of $935.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $845.28 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is 25.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on FCFS. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Loop Capital downgraded 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. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Capital One Financial set a $160.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $160.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.64, for a total transaction of $638,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 93,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,937,035.88. This represents a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 69,024 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.49, for a total transaction of $9,559,133.76. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 932,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $129,205,353.42. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 119,000 shares of company stock valued at $16,690,723 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.93% 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.