Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Increases Stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Key Points

• Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP increased its stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. by 16.8%, owning 54,249 shares after purchasing an additional 7,792 shares.
• FirstCash announced a quarterly dividend of $0.42 per share, marking an increase from the previous dividend of $0.38 and reflecting an annualized yield of 1.2%.
• Institutional investors hold approximately 80.30% of FirstCash's stock, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) by 16.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,249 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,792 shares during the period. FirstCash makes up about 1.6% of Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP's holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP owned about 0.12% of FirstCash worth $6,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in FirstCash during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $339,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in FirstCash by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,043,531 shares of the company's stock valued at $108,107,000 after acquiring an additional 9,264 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its stake in FirstCash by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 44,605 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,621,000 after acquiring an additional 3,316 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in FirstCash by 259.8% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,628 shares of the company's stock worth $687,000 after buying an additional 4,786 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in FirstCash by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,420 shares of the company's stock worth $769,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at FirstCash

In other news, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 3,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.93, for a total transaction of $510,627.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 32,481 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,252,737.33. This trade represents a 10.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 30,976 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.33, for a total transaction of $4,315,886.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 901,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,673,152.06. The trade was a 3.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 109,900 shares of company stock valued at $15,193,007. 14.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Capital One Financial set a $160.00 price target on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of FirstCash to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of FirstCash from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have given a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $142.33.

FirstCash Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of FirstCash stock traded up $0.62 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $147.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 78,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 305,439. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 3.12 and a current ratio of 4.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $126.57. The company has a market capitalization of $6.56 billion, a PE ratio of 22.71 and a beta of 0.68. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.24 and a 52 week high of $148.73.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $830.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $820.42 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 8.61% and a return on equity of 16.63%. FirstCash's quarterly revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This is a positive change from FirstCash's previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. FirstCash's payout ratio is currently 25.81%.

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.