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

The GEO Group (NYSE:GEO)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by investment analysts at Jones Trading in a note issued to investors 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 suggest a potential upside of 89.40% from the stock’s current price.

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

The GEO Group Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of GEO opened at $29.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.08 billion, a PE ratio of 100.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a fifty day moving average of $28.63 and a 200 day moving average of $23.50. The GEO Group has a 52-week low of $11.75 and a 52-week high of $36.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25.

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 (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $607.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $607.45 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The GEO Group will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The GEO Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in The GEO Group in the third quarter valued at about $1,279,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in The GEO Group by 91.9% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 859,528 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $24,050,000 after purchasing an additional 411,565 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in The GEO Group by 20.7% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 273,724 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,517,000 after purchasing an additional 46,905 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in The GEO Group in the third quarter valued at about $630,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in The GEO Group in the third quarter valued at about $609,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

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.