Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Cuts Position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,899 shares of the company’s stock after selling 392 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in FirstCash were worth $2,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FCFS. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstCash by 808.0% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional purchased a new position in shares of FirstCash in the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of FirstCash by 167.5% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstCash by 92.9% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 517 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of FirstCash in the 1st quarter valued at about $65,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at FirstCash

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 price target on FirstCash in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of FirstCash in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Loop Capital cut FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.40.

FirstCash Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of FirstCash stock opened at $154.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.79 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $144.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.62. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $100.24 and a 1-year high of $158.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 4.21 and a quick ratio of 3.12.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $830.62 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $820.42 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

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

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.