Royce & Associates LP Sells 40,289 Shares of 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 trimmed its holdings in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) by 35.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 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 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCFS. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in FirstCash by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 8,502 shares of the company's stock valued at $881,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in FirstCash in the fourth quarter worth $829,000. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in FirstCash by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 24,443 shares of the company's stock worth $2,677,000 after purchasing an additional 4,294 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in FirstCash by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,112,978 shares of the company's stock worth $426,105,000 after purchasing an additional 22,009 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC lifted its position in FirstCash by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the company's stock worth $240,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FirstCash 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 transaction of $510,627.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,252,737.33. This trade represents a 10.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

FirstCash Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS traded up $0.72 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $120.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 60,501 shares, compared to its average volume of 295,393. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $130.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.99. 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 company has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.62. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.24 and a fifty-two week high of $138.42.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $830.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $820.42 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 8.61%. The company's revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. 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. FirstCash's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.