FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Short Interest Update

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) saw a large increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 718,600 shares, an increase of 15.1% from the October 15th total of 624,400 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 249,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on FCFS shares. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 28th. Stephens initiated coverage on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Wednesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $137.00 price objective for the company.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 600 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.07, for a total value of $72,042.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,735,243 shares in the company, valued at $568,560,627.01. This trade represents a 0.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 16,154 shares of company stock valued at $1,909,562. Corporate insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCFS. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of FirstCash during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in FirstCash during the 2nd quarter valued at $54,000. CWM LLC grew its position in FirstCash by 157.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 569 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in FirstCash by 28.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 900 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC increased its stake in FirstCash by 134.3% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstCash Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS traded down $0.94 during trading on Friday, hitting $105.77. The company had a trading volume of 199,409 shares, compared to its average volume of 248,792. The stock has a market cap of $4.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 4.31 and a quick ratio of 3.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.66. FirstCash has a one year low of $101.62 and a one year high of $133.64.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.05. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.97% and a net margin of 7.29%. The company had revenue of $837.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $843.94 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. FirstCash’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.44%. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 28.15%.

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.