FirstCash (FCFS)

Pawn store operator FirstCash Holdings (NASDAQ:FCFS) reported Q3 CY2025 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 11.7% year on year to $935.6 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.26 per share was 17.1% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Company Overview

Offering a financial lifeline to the unbanked and credit-constrained since 1988, FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) operates pawn stores across the U.S. and Latin America while also providing retail point-of-sale payment solutions for credit-constrained consumers.

Personal loan providers offer unsecured credit for various consumer needs. The sector benefits from digital application processes, increasing consumer comfort with online financial services, and opportunities in underserved credit segments. Headwinds include credit risk management in unsecured lending, regulatory oversight of lending practices, and intense competition affecting margins from both traditional and fintech lenders.

FirstCash's pawn store competitors include EZCORP (NASDAQ:EZPW) and privately-held Cash America, while its retail POS payment solutions business competes with Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM), Katapult (NASDAQ:KPLT), Progressive Leasing (NYSE:PRG), and Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ:RCII).

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Luckily, FirstCash’s revenue grew at an impressive 14.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Its growth beat the average financials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes and market returns. FirstCash’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed significantly as its annualized revenue growth of 6.9% over the last two years was well below its five-year trend. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, FirstCash reported year-on-year revenue growth of 11.7%, and its $935.6 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 9.3%.

Revenue growth is one major determinant of business quality, and the efficiency of operations is another. For Personal Loan companies, we look at pre-tax profit rather than the operating margin that defines sectors such as consumer, tech, and industrials.

Financials companies manage interest-bearing assets and liabilities, making the interest income and expenses included in pre-tax profit essential to their profit calculation. Taxes, being external factors beyond management control, are appropriately excluded from this alternative margin measure.

Over the last four years, FirstCash’s pre-tax profit margin has fallen by 1 percentage points, going from 10.9% to 11.9%. It has also expanded by 1.9 percentage points on a two-year basis, showing its expenses have consistently grown at a slower rate than revenue. This typically signals prudent management.

FirstCash’s pre-tax profit margin came in at 12% this quarter. This result was 1.8 percentage points better than the same quarter last year.

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

FirstCash’s EPS grew at a remarkable 19.2% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 14.9% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For FirstCash, its two-year annual EPS growth of 20.4% was higher than its five-year trend. We love it when earnings growth accelerates, especially when it accelerates off an already high base.

In Q3, FirstCash reported adjusted EPS of $2.26, up from $1.67 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects FirstCash’s full-year EPS of $8.24 to grow 11.8%.

Financial firms profit by providing a wide range of services, making them fundamentally balance sheet-driven enterprises with multiple intermediation roles. Market participants emphasize balance sheet quality and sustained book value growth when evaluating these multifaceted institutions.

This is why we consider tangible book value per share (TBVPS) an important metric for the sector. TBVPS represents the real net worth per share across all business segments, providing a clear measure of shareholder equity regardless of the complexity of operations. EPS can become murky due to the complexity of multiple revenue streams, acquisition impacts, or accounting flexibility across different financial services, and book value resists financial engineering manipulation.

FirstCash’s TBVPS declined at a 159% annual clip over the last five years. On a two-year basis, TBVPS fell at a slower pace, dropping by 55% annually from -$1.94 to -$0.39 per share.

Return on equity, or ROE, quantifies bank profitability relative to shareholder equity - an essential capital source for these institutions. Over extended periods, superior ROE performance drives faster shareholder wealth compounding through reinvestment, share repurchases, and dividend growth.

Over the last five years, FirstCash has averaged an ROE of 12%, respectable for a company operating in a sector where the average shakes out around 10% and those putting up 25%+ are greatly admired.

The debt-to-equity ratio is a widely used measure to assess a company's balance sheet health. A higher ratio means that a business aggressively financed its growth with debt. This can result in higher earnings (if the borrowed funds are invested profitably) but also increases risk.

If debt levels are too high, there could be difficulties in meeting obligations, especially during economic downturns or periods of rising interest rates if the debt has variable-rate payments.

FirstCash currently has $2.58 billion of debt and $2.2 billion of shareholder's equity on its balance sheet, and over the past four quarters, has averaged a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.9×. We think this is safe and raises no red flags. In general, we’re comfortable with any ratio below 3.5× for a financials business.

We were impressed by how significantly FirstCash blew past analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Zooming out, we think this quarter featured some important positives. Investors were likely hoping for more, and shares traded down 5.3% to $140 immediately after reporting.

Updated: December 5, 2025 at 11:23 PM EST

Before investing in or passing on FirstCash, we urge you to understand the company’s business quality (or lack thereof), valuation, and the latest quarterly results - in that order.

FirstCash’s business quality ultimately falls short of our standards. Although its revenue growth was impressive over the last five years, it’s expected to deteriorate over the next 12 months and its TBVPS has declined over the last five years.

FirstCash’s P/E ratio based on the next 12 months is 16.7x. Investors with a higher risk tolerance might like the company, but we think the potential downside is too great. We're fairly confident there are better stocks to buy right now.

Wall Street analysts have a consensus one-year price target of $181.67 on the company (compared to the current share price of $153.92).

Although the price target is bullish, readers should exercise caution because analysts tend to be overly optimistic. The firms they work for, often big banks, have relationships with companies that extend into fundraising, M&A advisory, and other rewarding business lines. As a result, they typically hesitate to say bad things for fear they will lose out. We at StockStory do not suffer from such conflicts of interest, so we’ll always tell it like it is.