Geo Group’s (GEO) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at JonesTrading

JonesTrading reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research raised Geo Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Noble Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Geo Group in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Geo Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Geo Group in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Geo Group in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geo Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $40.00.

Geo Group Price Performance

Shares of GEO stock opened at $30.99 on Tuesday. Geo Group has a 52 week low of $12.51 and a 52 week high of $33.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 1.65. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $31.26 and its 200-day moving average is $26.66.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.08. Geo Group had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The firm had revenue of $732.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $721.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Geo Group will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Geo Group news, VP Matthew Albence sold 11,797 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.45, for a total transaction of $371,015.65. Following the sale, the vice president owned 87,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,755,082.90. The trade was a 11.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ronald A. Brack sold 7,000 shares of Geo Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total value of $224,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 71,614 shares in the company, valued at $2,291,648. The trade was a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,797 shares of company stock worth $911,916. Insiders own 4.98% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Geo Group

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Geo Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $570,744,000. Pentwater Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Geo Group in the second quarter worth $312,698,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geo Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $118,673,000. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC increased its holdings in Geo Group by 14.2% during the first quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 5,314,006 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $89,328,000 after buying an additional 661,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its position in Geo Group by 7.3% during the first quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,743,180 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $62,923,000 after purchasing an additional 256,265 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

About Geo Group

The GEO Group, Inc (NYSE: GEO) is a provider of correctional, detention and community-reentry services. The company designs, finances, develops and manages secure facilities for federal, state and local government agencies, as well as certain international government clients. Its facilities house individuals in pretrial detention, immigration detention and correctional programs.

GEO also provides correctional and behavioral healthcare, transportation and security services, and electronic monitoring technologies.