FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Short Interest Update

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 508,600 shares, a decrease of 6.2% from the May 15th total of 542,500 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 226,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCFS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Friday, June 7th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. TD Cowen raised shares of FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Monday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.00.

FirstCash Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $109.27 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $119.02 and a 200-day moving average of $116.82. The firm has a market cap of $4.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.30 and a beta of 0.64. FirstCash has a twelve month low of $88.05 and a twelve month high of $133.64. The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.05. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.23% and a return on equity of 14.73%. The business had revenue of $836.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $846.08 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.29%.

Insider Activity at FirstCash

In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.53, for a total transaction of $233,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 92,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,804,078.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.53, for a total transaction of $233,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 92,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,804,078.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 720,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.90, for a total transaction of $85,000,005.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,746,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $559,556,111.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in FirstCash by 2.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,556,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $658,158,000 after purchasing an additional 145,821 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in FirstCash by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,062,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $440,332,000 after purchasing an additional 219,983 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its stake in FirstCash by 0.6% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,288,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,871,000 after purchasing an additional 14,283 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in FirstCash by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,038,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,573,000 after purchasing an additional 36,035 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 6.3% during the first quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 879,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,197,000 after acquiring an additional 52,362 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.