Heartland Advisors Inc. Purchases New Holdings in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Heartland Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 10,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,112,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in FirstCash by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 9,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in FirstCash by 8.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 498,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,200,000 after acquiring an additional 37,810 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in FirstCash by 137.2% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 34,143 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,920,000 after purchasing an additional 19,749 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC increased its position in shares of FirstCash by 21.8% during the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 12,450 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,712,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $770,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037,601 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.30% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Stock Performance

Shares of FCFS opened at $119.36 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $114.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.94. The company has a quick ratio of 3.15, a current ratio of 4.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.24 and a 52 week high of $133.64. The stock has a market cap of $5.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.83 and a beta of 0.63.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The company reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. FirstCash had a net margin of 7.64% and a return on equity of 14.99%. On average, analysts expect that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $137.00 target price on shares of FirstCash in a report on Wednesday, February 19th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FirstCash news, major shareholder Douglas Richard Rippel sold 300,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.43, for a total value of $34,029,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,431,869 shares in the company, valued at $502,706,900.67. This represents a 6.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 2,000 shares of FirstCash stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.35, for a total transaction of $226,700.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 100,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,399,269.45. The trade was a 1.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 14.77% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About FirstCash

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.