The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) Given “Buy” Rating at Jones Trading

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by Jones Trading in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $55.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Jones Trading’s price target points to a potential upside of 94.79% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on GEO. Noble Financial upgraded shares of The GEO Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of The GEO Group in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of The GEO Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group set a $32.00 price objective on shares of The GEO Group in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.40.

The GEO Group Stock Performance

Shares of GEO stock opened at $28.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.37, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.67. The GEO Group has a 52 week low of $11.75 and a 52 week high of $36.46.

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by ($0.08). The GEO Group had a net margin of 2.00% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The business had revenue of $607.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $607.45 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The GEO Group will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,919,298 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $63,213,000 after buying an additional 66,658 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,051,384 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $85,398,000 after buying an additional 35,281 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 202.6% in the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,124,783 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $59,451,000 after buying an additional 1,422,676 shares in the last quarter. Discovery Capital Management LLC CT lifted its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 375.2% in the fourth quarter. Discovery Capital Management LLC CT now owns 1,839,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $51,469,000 after buying an additional 1,452,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Philosophy Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 17.1% in the third quarter. Philosophy Capital Management LLC now owns 1,644,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $21,125,000 after buying an additional 240,251 shares in the last quarter. 76.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About The 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.