FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) to Buyback $150.00 million in Outstanding Stock

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, October 30th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 2.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCFS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Loop Capital lowered FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, September 5th. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research raised FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, FirstCash currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.00.

FirstCash Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $158.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. FirstCash has a 52 week low of $100.24 and a 52 week high of $163.16. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $151.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $138.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.35 and a beta of 0.69.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.35. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%.The company had revenue of $935.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $845.28 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.67 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that FirstCash will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. FirstCash’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

Insider Activity at FirstCash

In other FirstCash news, Director James H. Graves sold 6,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $807,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,132,237.76. The trade was a 27.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,852 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.72, for a total transaction of $455,521.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 39,734 shares in the company, valued at $6,346,314.48. This trade represents a 6.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 119,000 shares of company stock worth $16,690,723. Company insiders own 2.93% 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.