Wall Street Zen Downgrades FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) to Buy

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

Separately, Stephens restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $137.00 price target on shares of FirstCash in a report on Wednesday, February 19th.

FirstCash Stock Performance

NASDAQ FCFS traded up $0.55 on Friday, hitting $127.24. 146,944 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 278,879. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 4.14 and a quick ratio of 3.15. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $125.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $115.43. FirstCash has a fifty-two week low of $100.24 and a fifty-two week high of $135.57. The firm has a market cap of $5.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21 and a beta of 0.63.

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

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.38 dividend. 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 payout ratio is currently 24.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FirstCash

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FCFS. Barclays PLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 50,799 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 273 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 2.6% during the 4th 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. lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 98.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,300 shares of the company's stock worth $723,000 after purchasing an additional 3,123 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,859 shares of the company's stock worth $193,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.