Wall Street Zen Downgrades FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) to Hold

Wall Street Zen cut shares of FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Friday.

FCFS has been the subject of several other reports. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Loop Capital cut shares of 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. Finally, Capital One Financial set a $160.00 target price on shares of FirstCash in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $143.00.

FirstCash Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ FCFS opened at $153.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50 day moving average is $140.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $132.10. FirstCash has a 52-week low of $100.24 and a 52-week high of $158.93. The firm has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.55 and a beta of 0.70.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $830.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $820.42 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that FirstCash will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 97,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,479,918.47. This trade represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 69,024 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.49, for a total transaction of $9,559,133.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 932,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $129,205,353.42. This trade represents a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 111,500 shares of company stock worth $15,493,610 over the last 90 days. 14.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FCFS. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of FirstCash during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in FirstCash by 808.0% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 227 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in FirstCash by 181.6% during the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional acquired a new position in FirstCash in the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its stake in FirstCash by 169.9% in the second quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.