Engineers Gate Manager LP Increases Holdings in Group 1 Automotive, Inc. $GPI

Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) by 81.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 26,173 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 11,748 shares during the quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Group 1 Automotive were worth $7,621,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in Group 1 Automotive in the 4th quarter worth $5,167,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive during the 4th quarter valued at about $98,125,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 1,001.6% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 12,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,026,000 after purchasing an additional 11,619 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 51.6% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 78,794 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,064,000 after buying an additional 26,822 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 75.1% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 12,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,054,000 after buying an additional 5,262 shares during the period. 99.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GPI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Group 1 Automotive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Group 1 Automotive from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $380.00 to $320.00 in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $300.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday, August 7th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Group 1 Automotive from $338.00 to $330.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Group 1 Automotive currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $373.38.

Group 1 Automotive Price Performance

GPI stock opened at $282.04 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $289.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $311.88. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. has a 52-week low of $249.54 and a 52-week high of $488.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.66 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $10.82 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Group 1 Automotive, Inc. will post 38.96 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Group 1 Automotive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Group 1 Automotive

In related news, major shareholder Conifer Management, L.L.C. purchased 83,121 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $282.63 per share, with a total value of $23,492,488.23. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,305,481 shares in the company, valued at $368,968,095.03. This trade represents a 6.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders acquired 170,380 shares of company stock worth $48,934,722 in the last ninety days. 2.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Group 1 Automotive 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.