FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $247.50 According to Analysts

FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $247.50.

A number of research firms have issued reports on FCFS. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on FirstCash from $265.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of FirstCash from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 10th. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, August 10th.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In other FirstCash news, COO Thomas Stuart sold 5,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.63, for a total value of $1,147,841.24. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 135,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,081,935.74. This represents a 3.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total value of $425,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 30,406 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,475,869.88. The trade was a 6.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,098 shares of company stock worth $3,051,281. Corporate insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCFS. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in FirstCash during the second quarter worth about $1,088,429,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in FirstCash in the 2nd quarter valued at $248,059,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in FirstCash by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 794,005 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,273,000 after purchasing an additional 17,177 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in FirstCash in the 2nd quarter valued at $69,779,000. Finally, Atlas FRM LLC acquired a new position in FirstCash in the second quarter worth $58,406,400. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FirstCash Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FCFS opened at $194.51 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 4.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $211.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $206.14. FirstCash has a 52-week low of $146.95 and a 52-week high of $238.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.07 and a beta of 0.59.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The company reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.63 by $0.05. FirstCash had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 9.48%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 11.03 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, October 28th that permits the company to repurchase $200 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 18.20%.

FirstCash Company Profile

FirstCash Holdings, Inc is a specialty financial services and retail company that operates pawn stores in the United States and Mexico. Through its pawn operations, the company provides short-term, collateral-backed loans to consumers who pledge personal property as security. Customers can reclaim their pledged items by repaying the loan and applicable fees within the required period.

The company also generates revenue by selling merchandise that has been forfeited on pawn loans or acquired through other purchasing activities.