Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Reduces Stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP reduced its stake in shares of FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) by 42.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 31,017 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,232 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP owned about 0.07% of FirstCash worth $4,192,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FCFS. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,289,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. CX Institutional lifted its stake in FirstCash by 24.7% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 434 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 1.2% during the second quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,024,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. Pullen Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 0.9% during the second quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 17,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 4.9% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 20,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.39, for a total value of $3,127,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 866,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,587,314.98. This trade represents a 2.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Thomas Brent Stuart sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.97, for a total value of $1,599,700.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 127,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,432,008.28. This trade represents a 7.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 50,000 shares of company stock worth $7,834,778 over the last quarter. Insiders own 2.93% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FCFS. Zacks Research upgraded FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of FirstCash in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of FirstCash from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $167.00.

FirstCash Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of FirstCash stock opened at $158.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 4.21 and a quick ratio of 3.12. The stock has a market cap of $7.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.36 and a beta of 0.66. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $155.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $141.90. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $100.24 and a 1 year high of $166.08.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $904.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $845.28 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, October 30th that permits the company to repurchase $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 2.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.24%.

FirstCash 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.