FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Given Consensus Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $154.40.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on FCFS shares. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 target price on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a report on Monday. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Loop Capital cut FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, September 5th.

FirstCash Price Performance

NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $154.90 on Tuesday. FirstCash has a 52-week low of $100.24 and a 52-week high of $158.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $144.13 and a 200 day moving average of $133.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.79 and a beta of 0.69.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.13. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%.The firm had revenue of $830.62 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $820.42 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that FirstCash will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.42 dividend. This is an increase from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is currently 25.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 69,024 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.49, for a total value of $9,559,133.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 932,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $129,205,353.42. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.41, for a total transaction of $445,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 97,567 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,479,918.47. This trade represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 111,500 shares of company stock valued at $15,493,610. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in FirstCash by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 132,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,911,000 after acquiring an additional 1,629 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstCash by 8.4% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $413,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC bought a new stake in FirstCash during the 1st quarter valued at $1,524,000. FORA Capital LLC purchased a new stake in FirstCash during the 1st quarter valued at $283,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in FirstCash by 18.2% in the 1st quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 11,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,771 shares during the last quarter. 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.