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

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of 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. Based on an average daily volume of 249,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In related news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.68, for a total value of $211,360.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 88,715 shares in the company, valued at $9,375,401.20. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 7,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.98, for a total transaction of $877,773.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,735,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $568,206,443.14. This represents a 0.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 16,154 shares of company stock worth $1,909,562. Company insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC purchased a new position in FirstCash in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of FirstCash during the 2nd quarter valued at about $54,000. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 157.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 569 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 28.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 134.3% in the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

FirstCash Stock Down 0.9 %

FCFS stock traded down $0.94 on Friday, reaching $105.77. 199,409 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 248,792. FirstCash has a one year low of $101.62 and a one year high of $133.64. The company has a market cap of $4.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 4.31 and a quick ratio of 3.23.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $837.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $843.94 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 14.97%. FirstCash’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on FCFS. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Stephens started coverage on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Wednesday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $137.00 price target for the company.

About FirstCash

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.