FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Short Interest Down 9.2% in September

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 853,400 shares, a decrease of 9.2% from the August 31st total of 939,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 299,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 2.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 2,864 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.01, for a total value of $343,708.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,743,159 shares in the company, valued at $569,226,511.59. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 2,864 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.01, for a total transaction of $343,708.64. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,743,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $569,226,511.59. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total value of $214,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 90,715 shares in the company, valued at $9,722,833.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 16,154 shares of company stock worth $1,912,562. Insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstCash

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FCFS. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in FirstCash in the 4th quarter worth $1,752,000. SG Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in FirstCash in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,348,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of FirstCash by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 611,435 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,983,000 after acquiring an additional 36,181 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 23.6% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 28,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,050,000 after purchasing an additional 5,377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 10.2% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 80,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,230,000 after purchasing an additional 7,399 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Stock Performance

FCFS stock traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $114.51. 208,601 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 244,889. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.32 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a 50-day moving average of $115.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $116.17. FirstCash has a 52 week low of $97.13 and a 52 week high of $133.64. The company has a quick ratio of 3.04, a current ratio of 4.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $831.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $824.87 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 7.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that FirstCash will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.