Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX) Shares Gap Up on Strong Earnings

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $51.45, but opened at $55.90. Greenbrier Companies shares last traded at $56.19, with a volume of 83,072 shares traded.

The transportation company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.60. The company had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. Greenbrier Companies had a net margin of 3.51% and a return on equity of 8.95%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.92 EPS.

Greenbrier Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. Greenbrier Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 31.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GBX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Greenbrier Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com cut Greenbrier Companies from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Greenbrier Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Laurie R. Dornan sold 5,935 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.92, for a total transaction of $302,210.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,226 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,182,667.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Greenbrier Companies

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in Greenbrier Companies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $590,000. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in shares of Greenbrier Companies in the second quarter worth $801,000. ClariVest Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Greenbrier Companies by 118,372.2% in the first quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 21,325 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,111,000 after purchasing an additional 21,307 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Greenbrier Companies during the 1st quarter worth $3,608,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Greenbrier Companies during the 1st quarter worth about $3,840,000. 95.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Greenbrier Companies Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.53. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98.

Greenbrier Companies Company Profile

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets railroad freight car equipment in North America, Europe, and South America. It operates through three segments: Manufacturing; Maintenance Services; and Leasing & Management Services. The Manufacturing segment offers covered hopper cars, gondolas, open top hoppers, boxcars, center partition cars, tank cars, sustainable conversions, double-stack railcars, auto-max ii, multi-max, and multi-max plus products, intermodal cars, automobile transport, coil steel and metals, flat cars, sliding wall cars, pressurized tank cars, and non-pressurized tank cars.