FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume Following Strong Earnings

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) saw unusually-high trading volume on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. Approximately 244,281 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 20% from the previous session’s volume of 203,490 shares.The stock last traded at $117.67 and had previously closed at $132.03.

The company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $836.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $846.08 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.73% and a net margin of 7.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.29%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCFS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens lifted their price target on FirstCash from $131.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $130.00 to $145.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.25, for a total transaction of $348,750.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 94,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,010,618.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.25, for a total value of $348,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 94,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,010,618.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 5,916 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.09, for a total transaction of $680,872.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,607,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $645,363,492.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 329,984 shares of company stock valued at $38,850,386 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 18.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its position in FirstCash by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $966,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in FirstCash by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 985 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in FirstCash by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in FirstCash by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 46,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,021,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its position in FirstCash by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 10,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,352,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 2.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a PE ratio of 22.56 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.65.

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.