Jones Trading Has Lowered Expectations for Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) Stock Price

Key Points

• Geo Group's price target was lowered from $50.00 to $45.00 by Jones Trading, which still maintains a "buy" rating on the stock, indicating a potential upside of 104.80%.
• The company plans to repurchase up to $300 million in outstanding shares, which is often seen as a sign that the board believes the stock is undervalued.
• Geo Group reported $0.22 earnings per share for the last quarter, surpassing analyst estimates of $0.16, with quarterly revenue up 4.8% from the previous year.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Jones Trading from $50.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the real estate investment trust's stock. Jones Trading's price objective indicates a potential upside of 111.07% from the company's previous close.

GEO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Geo Group in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Geo Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Geo Group currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $37.00.

Geo Group Stock Performance

NYSE GEO traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $21.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,013,659 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,461,559. Geo Group has a 12 month low of $11.75 and a 12 month high of $36.46. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $25.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The company has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.75.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. Geo Group had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 7.26%. The firm had revenue of $636.17 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $621.55 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Geo Group will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geo Group declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the real estate investment trust to purchase up to 8.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GEO. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in Geo Group by 9.2% during the second quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 35,576 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $852,000 after purchasing an additional 3,011 shares in the last quarter. Garnet Equity Capital Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Geo Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $479,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey lifted its stake in shares of Geo Group by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 31,016 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $743,000 after buying an additional 3,428 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Geo Group by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,259,307 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $78,076,000 after buying an additional 108,106 shares during the period. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Geo Group by 58.1% during the second quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 448,374 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $10,739,000 after acquiring an additional 164,760 shares during the period. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.