The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys New Stake in Group 1 Automotive, Inc. $GPI

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 196,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,174,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GPI. Torren Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Group 1 Automotive during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the third quarter worth about $55,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the fourth quarter worth about $57,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 78.5% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 191 shares of the company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP bought a new position in Group 1 Automotive during the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Institutional investors own 99.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GPI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on Group 1 Automotive from $420.00 to $462.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Evercore set a $360.00 target price on Group 1 Automotive in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Group 1 Automotive from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Group 1 Automotive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $392.44.

Group 1 Automotive Trading Up 2.0%

GPI opened at $264.62 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.82. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. has a 12 month low of $249.54 and a 12 month high of $488.39. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $295.34 and a 200 day moving average of $316.80.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $9.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $10.60 by ($0.99). Group 1 Automotive had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 1.31%.The company had revenue of $5.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $10.82 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Group 1 Automotive, Inc. will post 38.96 EPS for the current year.

Group 1 Automotive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Group 1 Automotive’s payout ratio is currently 9.16%.

About Group 1 Automotive

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.