Axiom Investors LLC DE Increases Holdings in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Key Points

• Axiom Investors LLC DE increased its FirstCash stake by 343.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 83,359 additional shares and ending with 107,624 shares valued at about $17.15 million.
• Institutional interest in FirstCash remains strong, with hedge funds and other institutional investors owning 80.30% of the company’s stock.
• FirstCash posted solid recent results and guidance sentiment, with Q1 EPS of $2.69 beating estimates and revenue rising 25.7% year over year; analysts currently rate the stock a Buy on average with a $198 price target.

Axiom Investors LLC DE lifted its position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) by 343.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 107,624 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 83,359 shares during the period. Axiom Investors LLC DE owned 0.24% of FirstCash worth $17,153,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in FirstCash by 4.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 22,946 shares of the company's stock worth $2,761,000 after buying an additional 1,021 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in FirstCash by 9.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 389,509 shares of the company's stock worth $46,866,000 after buying an additional 34,364 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in FirstCash by 237.2% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 62,057 shares of the company's stock worth $7,467,000 after buying an additional 43,653 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in FirstCash by 4.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 14,187 shares of the company's stock worth $1,917,000 after buying an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in FirstCash by 67.4% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 20,872 shares of the company's stock worth $2,821,000 after buying an additional 8,402 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.30% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In related news, SVP Raul Ramos sold 6,835 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.23, for a total value of $1,539,447.05. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 20,400 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,594,692. This represents a 25.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.29, for a total value of $454,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,734 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,121,980.86. The trade was a 5.30% 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. Insiders sold 27,500 shares of company stock worth $6,243,104 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.86% of the company's stock.

FirstCash Stock Performance

Shares of FCFS stock opened at $229.35 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.77, a quick ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $214.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $187.92. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $119.21 and a 12-month high of $235.97. The company has a market cap of $10.05 billion, a PE ratio of 28.74 and a beta of 0.52.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $2.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.39. FirstCash had a return on equity of 18.68% and a net margin of 9.15%.The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.07 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 25.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. FirstCash's dividend payout ratio is presently 21.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on FCFS. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of FirstCash from $205.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of FirstCash from a "buy (a-)" rating to a "buy (b+)" rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of FirstCash from $242.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research raised shares of FirstCash from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of FirstCash from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, FirstCash presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $198.00.

About FirstCash

FirstCash, Inc NASDAQ: FCFS is a leading integrated operator of pawn stores and provider of short-term consumer loan services in the United States and Mexico. Through its retail pawn outlets, FirstCash offers collateral-based loans secured by personal property, enabling customers to access liquidity without a credit history or traditional bank account. The company also purchases, trades and sells a broad range of secondhand merchandise, including electronics, jewelry and power tools, through its network of conveniently located stores.

In addition to its pawn-broking activities, FirstCash provides unsecured consumer loans designed to meet urgent cash needs.

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