Royce & Associates LP Trims Stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Key Points

• Royce & Associates LP reduced its holdings in FirstCash Holdings, selling 40,289 shares, which is a 35.1% decrease in their position, leaving them with approximately 0.17% of the company valued at $8.94 million.
• FirstCash has increased its quarterly dividend to $0.42 from $0.38, with the dividend yield now at 1.37%, scheduled for payout on August 29th.
• Analysts at Wall Street Zen have downgraded FirstCash from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating, reflecting shifting market sentiment.

Royce & Associates LP reduced its position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) by 35.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 74,374 shares of the company's stock after selling 40,289 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP owned 0.17% of FirstCash worth $8,949,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FCFS. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 1.6% in the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 5,552 shares of the company's stock worth $668,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 1.6% in the first quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,757 shares of the company's stock worth $693,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 1.1% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 9,315 shares of the company's stock worth $1,121,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 0.9% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 10,900 shares of the company's stock worth $1,311,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 3,403 shares of the company's stock worth $353,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 3,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.93, for a total value of $510,627.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 32,481 shares in the company, valued at $4,252,737.33. This trade represents a 10.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded FirstCash from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 12th.

FirstCash Stock Down 1.4%

NASDAQ FCFS traded down $1.77 during trading on Monday, hitting $120.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 186,496 shares, compared to its average volume of 295,887. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.24 and a fifty-two week high of $138.42. The company has a market cap of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 4.21 and a quick ratio of 3.12. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $130.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.90.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%. The firm had revenue of $830.62 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $820.42 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.39%. This is a boost from FirstCash's previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. FirstCash's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.35%.

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.