Investors Purchase Large Volume of Geo Group Call Options (NYSE:GEO)

Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 24,726 call options on the company. This is an increase of 64% compared to the typical daily volume of 15,051 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GEO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Noble Financial restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Monday, March 24th. Jones Trading lowered their target price on shares of Geo Group from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group set a $35.00 price target on shares of Geo Group in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Geo Group from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $36.00 target price on shares of Geo Group in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $38.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Geo Group

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Geo Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Geo Group by 160.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,170 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Geo Group in the 1st quarter worth $39,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Geo Group by 149.5% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,527 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 915 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Geo Group during the 1st quarter worth $58,000. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company's stock.

Geo Group Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE:GEO traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $23.39. The company's stock had a trading volume of 558,372 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,912,091. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Geo Group has a 1 year low of $11.75 and a 1 year high of $36.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $27.22 and a 200-day moving average of $28.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 123.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.76.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $604.65 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $611.81 million. Geo Group had a return on equity of 7.36% and a net margin of 1.19%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Geo Group will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Geo Group Company Profile

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.