Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the ten research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $400.2222.

Several research firms have recently commented on GPI. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Group 1 Automotive from $338.00 to $330.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. DA Davidson set a $425.00 price objective on Group 1 Automotive in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Evercore set a $360.00 target price on Group 1 Automotive in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $300.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Group 1 Automotive from $470.00 to $435.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th.

Institutional Trading of Group 1 Automotive

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GPI. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 54.9% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 79 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Corp lifted its holdings in Group 1 Automotive by 881.8% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Torren Management LLC purchased a new stake in Group 1 Automotive in the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Group 1 Automotive by 40.5% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 118 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Group 1 Automotive during the third quarter worth approximately $55,000. 99.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Group 1 Automotive Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE:GPI opened at $264.15 on Tuesday. Group 1 Automotive has a one year low of $261.13 and a one year high of $488.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $307.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $325.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.25.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $9.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $10.60 by ($0.99). The firm had revenue of $5.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.66 billion. Group 1 Automotive had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 1.31%.The company’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $10.82 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Group 1 Automotive will post 39.9 EPS for the current year.

Group 1 Automotive Company Profile

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.