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

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 775,900 shares, a decrease of 9.1% from the September 15th total of 853,400 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 262,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at FirstCash

In related news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 7,316 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.98, for a total value of $877,773.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,735,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $568,206,443.14. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 7,316 shares of FirstCash 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 transaction, the director now owns 4,735,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $568,206,443.14. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total transaction of $214,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 90,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,722,833.70. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,154 shares of company stock valued at $1,912,562 over the last three months. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstCash

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FCFS. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in FirstCash during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,752,000. SG Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of FirstCash in the first quarter worth $3,348,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in FirstCash by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 611,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,983,000 after buying an additional 36,181 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in FirstCash by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 80,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,230,000 after buying an additional 7,399 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in FirstCash by 21.7% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 192,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,508,000 after acquiring an additional 34,217 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Price Performance

FirstCash stock traded down $0.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $114.23. 103,751 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 242,374. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $116.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $115.43. The stock has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.27 and a beta of 0.62. FirstCash has a one year low of $100.39 and a one year high of $133.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 3.04 and a current ratio of 4.03.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $824.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that FirstCash will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. This is a positive change from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is presently 29.63%.

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.