First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Acquires New Holdings in The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE:GEO)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE:GEO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of The GEO Group during the second quarter worth $1,314,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of The GEO Group by 352.4% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 100,425 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,442,000 after purchasing an additional 78,225 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of The GEO Group by 4.5% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 110,649 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,589,000 after purchasing an additional 4,759 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of The GEO Group during the second quarter worth about $234,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of The GEO Group by 16.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 23,177 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $333,000 after buying an additional 3,295 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GEO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of The GEO Group in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of The GEO Group from $16.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Noble Financial lowered The GEO Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th.

The GEO Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GEO opened at $30.01 on Wednesday. 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 GEO Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.01 and a fifty-two week high of $36.46. The company has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.49, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.28.

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.03). The GEO Group had a net margin of 2.00% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The firm had revenue of $603.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $611.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The GEO Group, Inc. will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.