FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Coverage Initiated at Stephens

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

Separately, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th.

FirstCash Price Performance

Shares of FCFS opened at $105.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $4.73 billion, a PE ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 4.31, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.66. FirstCash has a 1-year low of $101.62 and a 1-year high of $133.64.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $837.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $843.94 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 14.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.68, for a total transaction of $211,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,375,401.20. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. 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 7,316 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.98, for a total transaction of $877,773.68. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,735,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,206,443.14. This trade represents a 0.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 16,154 shares of company stock worth $1,909,562. Corporate insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,712,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $770,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037,601 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,344,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,879,000 after purchasing an additional 55,919 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,386,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,196,000 after acquiring an additional 28,415 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,057,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,867,000 after acquiring an additional 15,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 6.3% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

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.