StockNews.com cut shares of Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG – Get Rating) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.
Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on ABG. Craig Hallum dropped their target price on shares of Asbury Automotive Group from $250.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Asbury Automotive Group from $205.00 to $180.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 17th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Asbury Automotive Group from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $213.75.
NYSE:ABG opened at $190.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $172.20. Asbury Automotive Group has a 12 month low of $146.43 and a 12 month high of $230.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a PE ratio of 7.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 1.45.
Asbury Automotive Group (NYSE:ABG – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 14th. The company reported $7.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $6.05 by $1.41. Asbury Automotive Group had a net margin of 5.41% and a return on equity of 39.45%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.54 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.44 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Asbury Automotive Group will post 33.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABG. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Asbury Automotive Group by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,706,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $640,169,000 after purchasing an additional 609,776 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Asbury Automotive Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,599,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Asbury Automotive Group by 321.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 246,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,639,000 after purchasing an additional 188,211 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC bought a new stake in Asbury Automotive Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $22,621,000. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Asbury Automotive Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $22,006,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.91% of the company’s stock.
About Asbury Automotive Group (Get Rating)
Asbury Automotive Group, Inc operates as a holding company, which engages in the automotive dealership. Its services include oil change, car brakes, changing tires, check engine light, battery, and wheel alignment. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Duluth, GA.
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