CGI Group, Inc. (NYSE:GIB) Given Consensus Rating of "Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• CGI Group, Inc. has received an average recommendation of "Buy" from four research firms, with a target price of $148.25 among analysts.
• The company recently reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, which slightly surpassed expectations, with revenue growing 11.4% year-over-year.
• CGI Group has announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.1086, leading to an annual yield of 0.5% for investors.

CGI Group, Inc. (NYSE:GIB - Get Free Report) TSE: GIB.A has received a consensus recommendation of "Buy" from the four brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $148.25.

Several analysts recently commented on GIB shares. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of CGI Group from $112.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of CGI Group from $185.00 to $175.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st.

CGI Group Stock Performance

GIB stock traded up $0.87 on Friday, hitting $93.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 317,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 270,625. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $96.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.64. CGI Group has a 1 year low of $92.07 and a 1 year high of $122.79. The stock has a market cap of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

CGI Group (NYSE:GIB - Get Free Report) TSE: GIB.A last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.01. CGI Group had a net margin of 11.01% and a return on equity of 18.53%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.91 EPS. CGI Group's revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that CGI Group will post 5.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CGI Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.1086 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $0.43 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from CGI Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. CGI Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.95%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CGI Group

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GIB. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec increased its stake in CGI Group by 22.5% in the 1st quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 4,933,984 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $491,725,000 after buying an additional 907,876 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of CGI Group by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 8,151,753 shares of the technology company's stock worth $813,792,000 after purchasing an additional 747,918 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CGI Group by 275.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 898,276 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $89,675,000 after purchasing an additional 658,925 shares in the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of CGI Group by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 3,452,820 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $361,881,000 after purchasing an additional 397,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in CGI Group by 35.6% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 956,460 shares of the technology company's stock worth $95,499,000 after buying an additional 251,242 shares in the last quarter. 66.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CGI Group

CGI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) and business process services. Its services include the business and strategic IT consulting, systems integration, and software solutions. The company also provides application development, modernization and maintenance, holistic enterprise digitization, automation, hybrid and cloud management, and business process services; intellectual property-based solutions; business consulting; managed IT services; and IT infrastructure services.