The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) Receives “Buy” Rating from Jones Trading

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at Jones Trading in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $55.00 target price on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Jones Trading’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 89.40% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on GEO. StockNews.com downgraded The GEO Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group set a $32.00 target price on The GEO Group in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of The GEO Group in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Noble Financial raised The GEO Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.40.

The GEO Group Price Performance

Shares of GEO stock opened at $29.04 on Friday. The GEO Group has a fifty-two week low of $11.75 and a fifty-two week high of $36.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.14, 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.50.

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by ($0.08). The GEO Group had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 2.00%. The business had revenue of $607.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $607.45 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The GEO Group will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On The GEO Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GEO. State Street Corp raised its position 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 worth $63,213,000 after acquiring an additional 66,658 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $85,398,000 after acquiring an additional 35,281 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position 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 worth $59,451,000 after acquiring an additional 1,422,676 shares during the period. Discovery Capital Management LLC CT raised its position 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 worth $51,469,000 after acquiring an additional 1,452,400 shares during the period. Finally, Philosophy Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $21,125,000 after acquiring an additional 240,251 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

The 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.