StockNews.com Downgrades The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday.

Separately, Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of The GEO Group from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th.

The GEO Group Price Performance

Shares of The GEO Group stock traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, reaching $12.22. 2,510,679 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,610,974. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $14.39 and its 200-day moving average is $13.68. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a PE ratio of 17.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.67. The GEO Group has a one year low of $6.94 and a one year high of $18.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.26.

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $607.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $606.16 million. The GEO Group had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 4.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that The GEO Group will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at The GEO Group

In other news, Director Scott Michael Kernan sold 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.62, for a total transaction of $72,186.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,936 shares in the company, valued at $326,008.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Scott Michael Kernan sold 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.62, for a total transaction of $72,186.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,936 shares in the company, valued at $326,008.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Shayn P. March sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.50, for a total transaction of $43,750.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 65,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,143,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GEO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in The GEO Group by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,575,361 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $147,021,000 after buying an additional 58,184 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 1,116.5% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,846,814 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $52,491,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,385 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,012,341 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $32,624,000 after purchasing an additional 63,101 shares in the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of The GEO Group in the fourth quarter worth about $32,230,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 4.6% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,114,771 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $16,008,000 after purchasing an additional 49,134 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.