FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Short Interest Up 28.8% in November

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 925,600 shares, a growth of 28.8% from the October 31st total of 718,600 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 246,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

FirstCash Trading Down 0.4 %

FCFS stock traded down $0.47 on Monday, hitting $108.39. 2,190 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 247,301. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16 and a beta of 0.64. The business’s fifty day moving average is $109.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $111.86. FirstCash has a twelve month low of $101.62 and a twelve month high of $133.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 4.31 and a quick ratio of 3.23.

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

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 15th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is currently 28.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stephens started coverage on FirstCash in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $137.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of FirstCash from $134.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 28th.

Insider Activity

In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 3,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.94, for a total transaction of $404,677.56. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,731,869 shares in the company, valued at $567,540,367.86. This represents a 0.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,375,401.20. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,974 shares of company stock worth $688,080 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 220.3% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 977 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 6.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,561 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,750,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in FirstCash during the first quarter valued at $1,189,000. Burney Co. raised its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 6.9% during the first quarter. Burney Co. now owns 4,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its stake in FirstCash by 17.8% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 621,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 94,010 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

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.