Short Interest in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Rises By 10.7%

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 939,500 shares, a growth of 10.7% from the August 15th total of 848,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 297,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total value of $214,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 90,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,722,833.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total value of $214,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 90,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,722,833.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 3,374 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.94, for a total transaction of $404,677.56. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,731,869 shares in the company, valued at $567,540,367.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,154 shares of company stock worth $1,912,562. 14.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FCFS. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of FirstCash in the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in FirstCash in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of FirstCash during the 2nd quarter valued at $54,000. Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 459 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 134.3% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, BTIG Research began coverage on FirstCash in a report on Friday, June 7th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, FirstCash has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $142.00.

FirstCash Stock Performance

FCFS stock traded down $0.28 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $117.95. 17,511 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 244,222. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.05 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $114.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $116.17. FirstCash has a one year low of $94.55 and a one year high of $133.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 4.03 and a quick ratio of 3.04.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $831.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.87 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 14.90%. FirstCash’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. This is a positive change from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.63%.

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.