Baird Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Shares in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 25,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,434,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FCFS. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of FirstCash by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 980,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,552,000 after buying an additional 11,534 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in FirstCash by 1.3% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 658,961 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,871,000 after acquiring an additional 8,503 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in FirstCash during the first quarter valued at approximately $55,340,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of FirstCash by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 389,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,866,000 after purchasing an additional 34,364 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of FirstCash by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 388,635 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,520,000 after purchasing an additional 6,633 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

FirstCash Trading Up 1.6%

FCFS stock opened at $158.72 on Thursday. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.24 and a 12 month high of $166.08. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $156.51 and its 200 day moving average is $143.93. The company has a market capitalization of $7.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 4.99 and a quick ratio of 3.72.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.35. FirstCash had a net margin of 8.88% and a return on equity of 17.44%. The business had revenue of $904.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $845.28 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current year.

FirstCash announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, October 30th that allows the company to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 2.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

FirstCash Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. FirstCash’s payout ratio is 24.24%.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In other news, Director Randel G. Owen sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.20, for a total transaction of $228,300.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,164,482.20. This represents a 16.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Thomas Brent Stuart sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.97, for a total value of $1,599,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 127,724 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,432,008.28. This represents a 7.26% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 44,500 shares of company stock valued at $7,023,548 over the last 90 days. 2.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCFS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of FirstCash in a report on Monday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of FirstCash from $181.00 to $188.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of FirstCash to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $205.00 price target on shares of FirstCash in a research note on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $167.00.

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.