FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS Stock Position Reduced by Squarepoint Ops LLC

Squarepoint Ops LLC lessened its stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) by 73.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,309 shares of the company’s stock after selling 60,390 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in FirstCash were worth $4,610,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in FirstCash by 9.3% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 474,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,296,000 after purchasing an additional 40,535 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in FirstCash by 70,840.3% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 43,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,010,000 after purchasing an additional 43,921 shares during the last quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of FirstCash during the 4th quarter worth about $17,439,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of FirstCash during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,088,429,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of FirstCash during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,476,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other FirstCash news, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total transaction of $425,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 30,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,475,869.88. The trade was a 6.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Thomas Stuart sold 5,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $214.63, for a total transaction of $1,147,841.24. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 135,498 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,081,935.74. This trade represents a 3.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 14,098 shares of company stock valued at $3,051,281 in the last quarter. 2.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen increased their price objective on FirstCash from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of FirstCash from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. 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 report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of FirstCash from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of FirstCash from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.00.

FirstCash Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of FCFS stock opened at $228.38 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $211.53. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $145.42 and a twelve month high of $238.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 3.51 and a current ratio of 4.89. The company has a market capitalization of $9.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07 and a beta of 0.53.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.11. FirstCash had a return on equity of 19.65% and a net margin of 9.42%.The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.34 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 29.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 11.85 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.18%.

FirstCash Company Profile

FirstCash, Inc (NASDAQ: FCFS) is a specialty consumer-finance and retail company focused primarily on pawn-based lending. Through its pawn stores, the company provides short-term, non-recourse loans secured by personal property, allowing customers to obtain cash without traditional credit underwriting. Customers may repay the loan and reclaim the pledged item or forfeit the collateral under applicable regulations.

FirstCash also generates revenue by selling merchandise obtained through forfeited pawn loans and by purchasing used goods directly from consumers.