SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 10,029 Shares of Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR)

SG Americas Securities LLC cut its holdings in shares of Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR) by 84.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,814 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 10,029 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Avis Budget Group were worth $322,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CAR. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Avis Budget Group by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,363,042 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $460,321,000 after buying an additional 22,518 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Avis Budget Group by 70.4% during the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,534,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $298,964,000 after acquiring an additional 634,040 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Avis Budget Group by 1.2% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,458,488 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $384,020,000 after acquiring an additional 16,655 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Avis Budget Group by 0.6% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 622,685 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $163,952,000 after acquiring an additional 3,626 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in shares of Avis Budget Group by 13.6% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 460,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $82,657,000 after purchasing an additional 55,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CAR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Avis Budget Group from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Avis Budget Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $234.00 to $248.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Avis Budget Group in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Avis Budget Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $118.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Northcoast Research upgraded Avis Budget Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Avis Budget Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.57.

Avis Budget Group Stock Performance

Shares of Avis Budget Group stock opened at $121.96 on Tuesday. Avis Budget Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.60 and a 52-week high of $244.95. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $123.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $159.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 2.22.

Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $7.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by $2.95. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.81 billion. Avis Budget Group had a net margin of 13.59% and a negative return on equity of 696.69%. The company’s revenue was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $10.46 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Avis Budget Group, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Avis Budget Group

Avis Budget Group, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides car and truck rentals, car sharing, and ancillary products and services to businesses and consumers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia, and Australasia. It operates the Avis brand, that offers vehicle rental and other mobility solutions to the premium commercial and leisure segments of the travel industry; and the Zipcar brand, a car sharing network, as well as the Budget brand, a supplier of vehicle rental and other mobility solutions focused primarily on more value-conscious customers comprising Budget car rental, and Budget Truck, a local, and one-way truck and cargo van rental businesses with a fleet of approximately 19,000 vehicles, which are rented through a network of dealer-operated and company-operated locations that serve the light commercial and consumer sectors in the continental United States.