LPL Financial LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO)

LPL Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO) by 43.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 108,235 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 82,557 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.08% of Geo Group worth $3,162,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Geo Group by 6.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,721 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 566 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in Geo Group by 7.6% during the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 10,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Geo Group during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Geo Group by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 13,316 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc raised its stake in Geo Group by 29.0% during the fourth quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 6,760 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,520 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GEO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Geo Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Geo Group in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Jones Trading cut their price objective on shares of Geo Group from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Geo Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.00.

Geo Group Stock Performance

GEO stock opened at $20.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.64. Geo Group Inc has a one year low of $11.75 and a one year high of $36.46.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $636.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $621.55 million. Geo Group had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 7.26%. Geo Group’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Geo Group Inc will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geo Group declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the real estate investment trust to buy up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Geo Group

The GEO Group, Inc (NYSE: GEO) engages in ownership, leasing, and management of secure facilities, processing centers, and community-based reentry facilities in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The company also provides secure facility management services, including the provision of security, administrative, rehabilitation, education, and food services; reentry services, such as temporary housing, programming, employment assistance, and other services; electronic monitoring and supervision services; and transportation services; as well as designs, constructs, and finances new facilities through projects.