Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $18.17 Million in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in FirstCash Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCFS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 175,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,169,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in FirstCash by 18.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,712,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $770,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037,601 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,386,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,196,000 after buying an additional 28,415 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 560,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,076,000 after buying an additional 123,386 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 519,945 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,866,000 after buying an additional 21,685 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of FirstCash by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 387,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,164,000 after buying an additional 30,948 shares during the period. 80.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

FirstCash Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:FCFS opened at $117.07 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 3.15 and a current ratio of 4.14. FirstCash Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $100.24 and a one year high of $133.64. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $112.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $110.86. The stock has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.43 and a beta of 0.63.

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

FirstCash Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. FirstCash’s payout ratio is currently 26.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling at FirstCash

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

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.