Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Jones Trading decreased their price target on Geo Group from $50.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Friday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Geo Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.00.

Geo Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GEO opened at $15.13 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Geo Group has a twelve month low of $14.27 and a twelve month high of $36.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.27, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.67.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter. Geo Group had a return on equity of 7.26% and a net margin of 3.69%.The company had revenue of $565.42 million for the quarter. Geo Group has set its FY22 guidance at $2.40-2.46 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Geo Group will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Geo Group announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 6th that permits the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the real estate investment trust to purchase up to 8.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GEO. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Geo Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,922,108 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $117,884,000 after purchasing an additional 98,739 shares during the last quarter. Continental General Insurance Co. boosted its stake in Geo Group by 919.8% during the 2nd quarter. Continental General Insurance Co. now owns 3,904,474 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $93,512,000 after purchasing an additional 3,521,589 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Geo Group by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,259,307 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $78,076,000 after purchasing an additional 108,106 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Geo Group by 312.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,608,619 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,198,000 after buying an additional 1,976,544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Geo Group by 2.1% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,554,420 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $45,405,000 after buying an additional 32,060 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Geo Group Company Profile

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.