FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) Rating Lowered to "Buy" at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Separately, Stephens reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $137.00 price objective on shares of FirstCash in a report on Wednesday, February 19th.

FirstCash Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ FCFS traded up $0.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $127.50. 258,120 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 278,936. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 3.15 and a current ratio of 4.14. FirstCash has a 1-year low of $100.24 and a 1-year high of $135.57. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $124.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $115.00.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $836.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $837.11 million. FirstCash had a return on equity of 14.99% and a net margin of 7.64%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that FirstCash will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. FirstCash's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.32%.

Institutional Trading of FirstCash

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FCFS. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in FirstCash by 163.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 81,807 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,391,000 after purchasing an additional 50,799 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 2,039 shares of the company's stock worth $211,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in FirstCash by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,304 shares of the company's stock worth $653,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 98.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,300 shares of the company's stock valued at $723,000 after buying an additional 3,123 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in FirstCash by 54.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,859 shares of the company's stock valued at $193,000 after acquiring an additional 653 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.30% of the company's stock.

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.