Scientech Research LLC Invests $201,000 in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Scientech Research LLC bought a new position in shares of FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 1,921 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of FirstCash in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in FirstCash during the second quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its stake in FirstCash by 62.2% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its stake in FirstCash by 134.3% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in FirstCash by 220.3% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,000 after buying an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BTIG Research assumed coverage on FirstCash in a research note on Friday, June 7th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $142.00.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 2,864 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.01, for a total value of $343,708.64. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,743,159 shares in the company, valued at $569,226,511.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other FirstCash news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.18, for a total transaction of $214,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 90,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,722,833.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 2,864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.01, for a total value of $343,708.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,743,159 shares in the company, valued at $569,226,511.59. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,154 shares of company stock worth $1,912,562. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

FirstCash Price Performance

NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $114.19 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.26 and a beta of 0.62. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $97.81 and a 1 year high of $133.64. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 4.03 and a quick ratio of 3.04.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 7.17%. The business had revenue of $831.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.87 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. This is an increase from FirstCash’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.63%.

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.