BTIG Research Initiates Coverage on FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Research analysts at BTIG Research initiated coverage on shares of FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Loop Capital upgraded FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $125.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Monday, April 29th. TD Cowen upgraded FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $130.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FirstCash has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.00.

FirstCash Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ FCFS opened at $112.47 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 21.92 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 3.99, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. FirstCash has a 12 month low of $88.05 and a 12 month high of $133.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $121.02 and a 200-day moving average of $116.84.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $836.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $846.08 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.73% and a net margin of 7.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other FirstCash news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 21,852 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.90, for a total transaction of $2,620,054.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,502,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $659,781,043.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 21,852 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.90, for a total transaction of $2,620,054.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,502,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $659,781,043.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.53, for a total value of $233,060.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 92,715 shares in the company, valued at $10,804,078.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 784,156 shares of company stock worth $92,472,699 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 14.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its stake in FirstCash by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $966,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in FirstCash by 0.3% in the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 46,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,924,000 after buying an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its stake in FirstCash by 5.6% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in FirstCash by 16.2% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 985 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in FirstCash by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.