JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reduces Position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

JPMorgan Chase & Co. trimmed its position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) by 18.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 122,653 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,613 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in FirstCash were worth $16,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in shares of FirstCash in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in FirstCash by 181.6% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its position in FirstCash by 24.7% in the second quarter. CX Institutional now owns 434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd increased its holdings in FirstCash by 169.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 448 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in FirstCash during the 1st quarter worth approximately $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of FirstCash from $181.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FirstCash currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $167.00.

FirstCash Stock Down 5.0%

FCFS opened at $153.93 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $156.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21 and a beta of 0.53. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.24 and a fifty-two week high of $166.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a current ratio of 4.99.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.35. FirstCash had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 17.44%. The business had revenue of $904.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $845.28 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

FirstCash declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to buyback $150.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 2.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.45, for a total transaction of $396,125.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 38,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,058,177.30. This represents a 6.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Randel G. Owen sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.20, for a total transaction of $228,300.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,164,482.20. This trade represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 44,500 shares of company stock valued at $7,023,548 over the last ninety days. 2.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

FirstCash 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.