Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 54 Shares of Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:GPI) by 44.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 176 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Group 1 Automotive were worth $54,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GPI. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,562,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 574,561 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,390,000 after buying an additional 63,726 shares in the last quarter. Covalis Capital LLP acquired a new position in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $16,330,000. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of Group 1 Automotive in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $12,703,000. Finally, South Dakota Investment Council raised its holdings in shares of Group 1 Automotive by 407.5% in the 3rd quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 35,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,512,000 after buying an additional 28,424 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GPI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Group 1 Automotive from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut Group 1 Automotive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $330.00 target price on shares of Group 1 Automotive in a report on Tuesday, February 13th. Guggenheim raised Group 1 Automotive from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $305.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Group 1 Automotive from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $255.00 in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.67.

Group 1 Automotive Trading Down 0.0 %

GPI stock opened at $300.35 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $272.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.60. Group 1 Automotive, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $214.25 and a fifty-two week high of $310.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.33.

Group 1 Automotive (NYSE:GPI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The company reported $9.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.44 by ($0.94). The business had revenue of $4.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.41 billion. Group 1 Automotive had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 22.82%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $10.86 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Group 1 Automotive, Inc. will post 39.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Group 1 Automotive Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. This is a positive change from Group 1 Automotive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Group 1 Automotive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.44%.

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.