FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Coverage Initiated at Stephens

Stephens began coverage on shares of FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $137.00 price objective on the stock.

Separately, TD Cowen dropped their target price on FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 28th.

FirstCash Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $105.77 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $112.66. The firm has a market cap of $4.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 4.31. FirstCash has a 52-week low of $101.62 and a 52-week high of $133.64.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.05. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.97% and a net margin of 7.29%. The company had revenue of $837.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $843.94 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 6.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 28.15%.

Insider Activity at FirstCash

In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.68, for a total value of $211,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,375,401.20. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 7,316 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.98, for a total value of $877,773.68. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,735,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,206,443.14. This represents a 0.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 16,154 shares of company stock valued at $1,909,562. 14.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in FirstCash by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 2,173 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in FirstCash by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in FirstCash by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 9,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in FirstCash by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 17,252 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,809,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. 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.