Chase Investment Counsel Corp Purchases Shares of 7,390 FirstCash Holdings, Inc. $FCFS

Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new position in shares of FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 7,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,598,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of FirstCash in the 2nd quarter valued at about $94,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in FirstCash in the second quarter valued at approximately $69,779,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in FirstCash in the second quarter valued at approximately $767,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in FirstCash during the second quarter valued at approximately $7,464,000. Finally, Arista Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in FirstCash by 1.4% during the second quarter. Arista Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $907,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. 80.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCFS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research cut shares of FirstCash from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered FirstCash from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, May 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on FirstCash from $242.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Loop Capital upgraded FirstCash from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised FirstCash from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Howard F. Hambleton sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.41, for a total value of $679,230.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 32,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,337,042.46. This represents a 8.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Raul Ramos sold 6,835 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.23, for a total transaction of $1,539,447.05. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 20,400 shares in the company, valued at $4,594,692. This trade represents a 25.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 13,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,950,204 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.86% of the company’s stock.

FirstCash Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $214.75 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.51 and a beta of 0.53. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $135.64 and a one year high of $235.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 3.51 and a current ratio of 4.89. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $214.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.58.

FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.11. FirstCash had a return on equity of 19.65% and a net margin of 9.42%.The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. FirstCash’s quarterly revenue was up 29.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that FirstCash Holdings, Inc. will post 11.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. FirstCash’s dividend payout ratio is 19.18%.

FirstCash Company Profile

FirstCash, Inc (NASDAQ: FCFS) is a leading integrated operator of pawn stores and provider of short-term consumer loan services in the United States and Mexico. Through its retail pawn outlets, FirstCash offers collateral-based loans secured by personal property, enabling customers to access liquidity without a credit history or traditional bank account. The company also purchases, trades and sells a broad range of secondhand merchandise, including electronics, jewelry and power tools, through its network of conveniently located stores.

In addition to its pawn-broking activities, FirstCash provides unsecured consumer loans designed to meet urgent cash needs.