Short Interest in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Decreases By 9.2%

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 853,400 shares, a decrease of 9.2% from the August 31st total of 939,500 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 299,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total transaction of $214,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 90,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,722,833.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total value of $214,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 90,715 shares in the company, valued at $9,722,833.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 3,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.94, for a total transaction of $404,677.56. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,731,869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $567,540,367.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,154 shares of company stock valued at $1,912,562 in the last three months. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in FirstCash in the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of FirstCash in the second quarter worth $54,000. Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 62.2% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 134.3% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP raised its position in FirstCash by 511.1% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,000 after buying an additional 920 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

FirstCash Price Performance

NASDAQ:FCFS traded up $0.12 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $114.51. 208,601 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 244,889. The company has a market capitalization of $5.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.32 and a beta of 0.62. FirstCash has a 12 month low of $97.13 and a 12 month high of $133.64. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $115.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.17. The company has a quick ratio of 3.04, a current ratio of 4.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 7.17%. The business had revenue of $831.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.87 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that FirstCash will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. This is a boost from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, BTIG Research assumed coverage on FirstCash in a research note on Friday, June 7th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.00.

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.