Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the five research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $37.00.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jones Trading dropped their price target on shares of Geo Group from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Geo Group in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Geo Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th.

Geo Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GEO opened at $16.85 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $19.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.52. Geo Group has a 12 month low of $13.59 and a 12 month high of $36.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.75.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $565.42 million for the quarter. Geo Group had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 7.26%. Geo Group has set its FY22 guidance at $2.40-2.46 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Geo Group will post 0.83 earnings per share 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 buyback $300.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the real estate investment trust to purchase up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Geo Group by 2.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,922,108 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $117,884,000 after acquiring an additional 98,739 shares during the period. Continental General Insurance Co. boosted its holdings in Geo Group by 919.8% during the second quarter. Continental General Insurance Co. now owns 3,904,474 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $93,512,000 after buying an additional 3,521,589 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Geo Group by 3.4% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Geo Group by 312.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,608,619 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $76,198,000 after buying an additional 1,976,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Geo Group by 2.1% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,554,420 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $45,405,000 after buying an additional 32,060 shares in the last quarter. 76.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.