CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) Upgraded to Buy by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Wednesday morning.

CXW has been the topic of several other reports. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of CoreCivic from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of CoreCivic from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th.

CoreCivic Stock Performance

Shares of CoreCivic stock opened at $14.73 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.97 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.08. CoreCivic has a fifty-two week low of $7.84 and a fifty-two week high of $16.24.

CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $491.25 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $489.62 million. CoreCivic had a return on equity of 4.70% and a net margin of 3.56%. Sell-side analysts predict that CoreCivic will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at CoreCivic

In other CoreCivic news, CEO Damon T. Hininger sold 50,525 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.62, for a total value of $738,675.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 820,262 shares in the company, valued at $11,992,230.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Anthony L. Grande sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.50, for a total transaction of $217,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 186,692 shares in the company, valued at $2,707,034. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Damon T. Hininger sold 50,525 shares of CoreCivic stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.62, for a total transaction of $738,675.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 820,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,992,230.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoreCivic

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in CoreCivic by 71.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 907,088 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,132,000 after buying an additional 378,577 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CoreCivic by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,357,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,167,000 after acquiring an additional 19,927 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CoreCivic by 148.6% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 42,524 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $475,000 after acquiring an additional 25,417 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CoreCivic by 8.4% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 115,840 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,294,000 after buying an additional 8,990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in CoreCivic by 158.4% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 22,253 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $249,000 after acquiring an additional 13,641 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.13% of the company’s stock.

About CoreCivic

CoreCivic, Inc owns and operates partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: CoreCivic Safety, CoreCivic Community, and CoreCivic Properties. The company provides a range of solutions to government partners that serve the public good through corrections and detention management, a network of residential reentry centers to help address America's recidivism crisis, and government real estate solutions.