Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

GEO has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Wednesday. Zacks Research lowered shares of Geo Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Jones Trading decreased their price objective on shares of Geo Group from $50.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geo Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

Geo Group Stock Performance

NYSE:GEO opened at $15.77 on Friday. Geo Group has a twelve month low of $14.27 and a twelve month high of $36.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 billion, a PE ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.67.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Geo Group had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 7.26%. The company had revenue of $565.42 million during the quarter. Geo Group has set its FY22 guidance at $2.40-2.46 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Geo Group will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geo Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the real estate investment trust to purchase up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. South Dakota Investment Council raised its holdings in shares of Geo Group by 454.0% in the 2nd quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 138,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,317,000 after acquiring an additional 113,500 shares during the last quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Geo Group by 58.1% during the 2nd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 448,374 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,739,000 after purchasing an additional 164,760 shares during the last quarter. Sciencast Management LP bought a new stake in Geo Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $489,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in Geo Group by 15.8% during the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 281,264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,736,000 after purchasing an additional 38,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Geo Group by 53.9% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 127,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,724,000 after purchasing an additional 44,649 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

About 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.