Lincoln Pereira Sells 6,000 Shares of Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) Stock

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) Director Lincoln Pereira sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $426.68, for a total value of $2,560,080.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 98,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,013,899.56. The trade was a 5.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Group 1 Automotive Stock Performance

Shares of GPI traded up $4.86 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $426.34. The stock had a trading volume of 23,788 shares, compared to its average volume of 133,603. The firm has a market cap of $5.68 billion, a PE ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $395.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $356.99. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. has a one year low of $255.73 and a one year high of $440.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $9.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.87 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $5.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.06 billion. Group 1 Automotive had a return on equity of 18.49% and a net margin of 2.68%. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $12.07 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Group 1 Automotive, Inc. will post 38.37 EPS for the current year.

Group 1 Automotive declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, November 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 9.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Group 1 Automotive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Group 1 Automotive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Group 1 Automotive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 2.3% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 156,627 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,701,000 after acquiring an additional 3,507 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Group 1 Automotive in the 3rd quarter valued at $272,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Group 1 Automotive by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $504,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Group 1 Automotive by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 305,602 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,080,000 after buying an additional 1,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 244.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 56,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,573,000 after buying an additional 39,982 shares in the last quarter. 99.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of Group 1 Automotive from $420.00 to $442.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Stephens began coverage on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $394.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $500.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded Group 1 Automotive from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $285.00 to $430.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Group 1 Automotive from $420.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Group 1 Automotive currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $437.67.

Group 1 Automotive Company Profile

Group 1 Automotive, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates in the automotive retail industry in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company sells new and used cars, light trucks, and vehicle parts, as well as service and insurance contracts; arranges related vehicle financing; and offers automotive maintenance and repair services.