FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS Shares Sold by Simplex Trading LLC

Key Points

• Simplex Trading LLC has significantly reduced its stake in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. by 96.1%, selling 15,451 shares and holding only 626 shares valued at $75,000.
• CEO Rick L. Wessel sold 69,024 shares for over $9.5 million, indicating a 6.89% decrease in his ownership.
• FirstCash announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.42 per share, reflecting a 1.2% dividend yield, with the ex-dividend date on August 15th.

Simplex Trading LLC cut its position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) by 96.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 626 shares of the company's stock after selling 15,451 shares during the quarter. Simplex Trading LLC's holdings in FirstCash were worth $75,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in FirstCash by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 5,552 shares of the company's stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC raised its stake in FirstCash by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. MBM Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 5,757 shares of the company's stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its stake in FirstCash by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 9,315 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,121,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in FirstCash by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 10,900 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,311,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its stake in shares of FirstCash by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 8,559 shares of the company's stock worth $1,029,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

FirstCash Price Performance

Shares of FCFS traded down $0.83 on Thursday, reaching $147.77. The stock had a trading volume of 272,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 327,374. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.56 billion, a PE ratio of 22.70 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 4.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $134.74 and a 200 day moving average of $126.96. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $100.24 and a twelve month high of $148.94.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $830.62 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. This is an increase from FirstCash's previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. FirstCash's payout ratio is currently 25.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at FirstCash

In other FirstCash news, Director James H. Graves sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $807,360.00. Following the sale, the director owned 15,846 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,132,237.76. This represents a 27.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 3,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.93, for a total value of $510,627.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 109,900 shares of company stock worth $15,193,007. 2.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.