Royce & Associates LP Purchases 26,098 Shares of FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Royce & Associates LP boosted its holdings in shares of FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) by 29.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 114,663 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,098 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in FirstCash were worth $11,879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised 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 worth $770,627,000 after buying an additional 1,037,601 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in FirstCash in the fourth quarter valued at about $18,169,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in FirstCash during the third quarter worth about $18,368,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 560,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,076,000 after acquiring an additional 123,386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 174.3% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 159,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,269,000 after purchasing an additional 101,130 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $137.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th.

FirstCash Price Performance

FirstCash stock opened at $117.07 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $112.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $110.86. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.24 and a 12 month high of $133.64. The company has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.43 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 4.14, a quick ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.64% and a return on equity of 14.99%. Analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 26.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FirstCash news, major shareholder Douglas Richard Rippel sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.43, for a total transaction of $34,029,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 4,431,869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $502,706,900.67. This trade represents a 6.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.35, for a total transaction of $226,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 100,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,399,269.45. This represents a 1.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 14.77% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

FirstCash 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.