TD Cowen Upgrades FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) to “Buy”

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) was upgraded by investment analysts at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm presently has a $145.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $130.00. TD Cowen’s price target suggests a potential upside of 10.37% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Stephens increased their target price on FirstCash from $131.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd.

FirstCash Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $131.38 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37 and a beta of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $119.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $112.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 3.89 and a quick ratio of 2.96. FirstCash has a fifty-two week low of $88.05 and a fifty-two week high of $131.46.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $852.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $859.23 million. FirstCash had a net margin of 6.96% and a return on equity of 14.42%. FirstCash’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that FirstCash will post 6.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at FirstCash

In other news, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 19,020 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.34, for a total transaction of $2,231,806.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,997,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,767,771.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO R Douglas Orr sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.25, for a total transaction of $348,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 94,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,010,618.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Douglas Richard Rippel sold 19,020 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.34, for a total transaction of $2,231,806.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,997,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $703,767,771.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 329,984 shares of company stock valued at $38,850,386 in the last ninety days. 18.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstCash

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 2.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,556,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $658,158,000 after buying an additional 145,821 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 7.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,566,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,501,000 after buying an additional 297,552 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 19.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,396,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,282,000 after buying an additional 730,072 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 98,847.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,317,075 shares of the company’s stock valued at $375,197,000 after buying an additional 4,312,712 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstCash by 1.0% in the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,206,042 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,442,000 after buying an additional 22,067 shares in the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.