JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has Lowered Expectations for Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG) Stock Price

Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG) had its price target dropped by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $190.00 to $185.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.98% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on ABG. Barclays restated a “reduce” rating on shares of Asbury Automotive Group in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup increased their price target on Asbury Automotive Group from $212.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group set a $250.00 price objective on Asbury Automotive Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Asbury Automotive Group in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Asbury Automotive Group from $230.00 to $184.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $223.50.

Asbury Automotive Group Trading Down 2.1%

NYSE:ABG traded down $3.62 on Tuesday, hitting $168.21. The stock had a trading volume of 122,276 shares, compared to its average volume of 247,137. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $205.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $201.97. Asbury Automotive Group has a 1-year low of $167.30 and a 1-year high of $258.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.30, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.78.

Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The company reported $6.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.31 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.49 billion. Asbury Automotive Group had a net margin of 2.83% and a return on equity of 12.72%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $7.43 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Asbury Automotive Group will post 26.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Asbury Automotive Group news, SVP Jed Milstein sold 948 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.28, for a total transaction of $237,265.44. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 11,259 shares in the company, valued at $2,817,902.52. This represents a 7.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.75% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Asbury Automotive Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Asbury Automotive Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $593,499,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Asbury Automotive Group by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,156,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,977,000 after acquiring an additional 34,104 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Asbury Automotive Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $60,592,000. Magnolia Group LLC increased its stake in Asbury Automotive Group by 3.1% during the first quarter. Magnolia Group LLC now owns 288,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,279,000 after purchasing an additional 8,731 shares during the period. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Asbury Automotive Group by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 211,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,076,000 after purchasing an additional 10,892 shares during the period.

About Asbury Automotive Group

Asbury Automotive Group, Inc is a U.S.-based automotive retailer that operates franchised dealerships representing a range of domestic and international vehicle manufacturers. The company sells new and used cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles, and provides related financing and insurance products.

In addition to vehicle sales, Asbury’s dealerships offer automotive maintenance and repair, replacement parts, collision repair and other after-sales services. The company also operates Clicklane, a digital retail platform designed to support online vehicle purchasing, financing and trade-ins.

Headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, Asbury serves customers through dealership locations across multiple U.S.