Geo Group Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:GEO)

Geo Group Inc (The) (NYSE:GEO) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 16,413 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 89% compared to the typical volume of 8,705 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the company. Noble Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research raised shares of Geo Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Friday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Geo Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Geo Group in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Geo Group currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Geo Group Stock Down 4.5%

NYSE:GEO traded down $1.30 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $27.36. The stock had a trading volume of 1,010,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,190,756. The company has a current ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. Geo Group has a 1-year low of $12.51 and a 1-year high of $33.17. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.24. The company has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a PE ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.77.

Geo Group (NYSE:GEO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.08. Geo Group had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The business had revenue of $732.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $721.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Geo Group will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Geo Group

In other Geo Group news, VP Matthew Albence sold 11,797 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.45, for a total transaction of $371,015.65. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 87,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,755,082.90. This represents a 11.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ronald A. Brack sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total value of $224,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 71,614 shares in the company, valued at $2,291,648. This trade represents a 8.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 28,797 shares of company stock valued at $911,916 over the last ninety days. 4.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Geo Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Geo Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $570,744,000. Pentwater Capital Management LP bought a new position in Geo Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $312,698,000. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC grew its holdings in Geo Group by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 5,314,006 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $89,328,000 after buying an additional 661,281 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in Geo Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $118,673,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Geo Group by 141.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,895,780 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $118,704,000 after acquiring an additional 2,284,770 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

About Geo Group

The GEO Group, Inc (NYSE: GEO) is a provider of correctional, detention and community-reentry services. The company designs, finances, develops and manages secure facilities for federal, state and local government agencies, as well as certain international government clients. Its facilities house individuals in pretrial detention, immigration detention and correctional programs.

GEO also provides correctional and behavioral healthcare, transportation and security services, and electronic monitoring technologies.