Group 1 Automotive, Inc. $GPI Shares Acquired by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management increased its Group 1 Automotive stake by 28.4% in the second quarter, owning 30,771 shares valued at approximately $8.96 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 99.92% of the company’s stock.
• Group 1 Automotive reported quarterly EPS of $9.61, below the $10.60 consensus estimate, while revenue of $5.39 billion also missed expectations and declined 5.6% year over year.
• GPI shares opened at $265.62, near their 12-month low of $261.13. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $400.22, though JPMorgan recently downgraded the stock to “Neutral” and cut its target to $320.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI - Free Report) by 28.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,771 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,814 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.26% of Group 1 Automotive worth $8,960,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Group 1 Automotive by 366,770.5% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 25,431,464 shares of the company's stock worth $10,002,195,000 after buying an additional 25,424,532 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Group 1 Automotive by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 688,416 shares of the company's stock valued at $227,612,000 after buying an additional 10,100 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Group 1 Automotive by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 505,108 shares of the company's stock valued at $198,659,000 after buying an additional 7,418 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive during the fourth quarter valued at about $98,125,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 151,578 shares of the company's stock worth $59,616,000 after acquiring an additional 7,501 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.92% of the company's stock.

Group 1 Automotive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GPI opened at $265.62 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $3.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.82. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. has a twelve month low of $261.13 and a twelve month high of $488.39. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $307.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.80.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $9.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $10.60 by ($0.99). The firm had revenue of $5.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. Group 1 Automotive had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 1.31%.The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $10.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Group 1 Automotive, Inc. will post 39.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on GPI. Evercore set a $360.00 price objective on Group 1 Automotive in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. DA Davidson set a $425.00 target price on Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Group 1 Automotive from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $380.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Group 1 Automotive from $420.00 to $462.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Group 1 Automotive currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $400.22.

Group 1 Automotive Profile

Group 1 Automotive, Inc NYSE: GPI is an international automotive retailer headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company operates an extensive network of franchised dealerships, offering new and pre-owned vehicles from leading domestic and import manufacturers. In addition to vehicle sales, Group 1 Automotive provides a full complement of aftersales services, including finance and insurance products, parts distribution, collision repair centers and vehicle maintenance.

Founded in 1997, Group 1 Automotive has grown through both organic expansion and strategic acquisitions to establish a presence across the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

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