Grocery Outlet (NASDAQ:GO) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:GO) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $19.00 to $16.00. The stock had previously closed at $14.17, but opened at $12.56. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Grocery Outlet shares last traded at $12.2950, with a volume of 1,465,175 shares traded.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Grocery Outlet in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Telsey Advisory Group cut Grocery Outlet from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised Grocery Outlet from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Craig Hallum raised Grocery Outlet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Grocery Outlet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Grocery Outlet presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.91.

Insider Transactions at Grocery Outlet

In other Grocery Outlet news, EVP Steven K. Wilson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.24, for a total value of $91,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 141,923 shares in the company, valued at $2,588,675.52. This represents a 3.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 4.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Grocery Outlet

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GO. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Grocery Outlet by 213.5% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Grocery Outlet during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Grocery Outlet by 591.5% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,033 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,739 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Grocery Outlet by 32.3% during the 2nd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Grocery Outlet by 64.2% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,024 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.87% of the company’s stock.

Grocery Outlet Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company’s fifty day moving average is $16.17 and its 200 day moving average is $15.19. The company has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 176.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.33.

Grocery Outlet (NASDAQ:GO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.02. Grocery Outlet had a net margin of 0.18% and a return on equity of 6.34%. The company had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Grocery Outlet has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.780-0.80 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Grocery Outlet

Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. operates as a retailer of consumables and fresh products sold through independently operated stores in the United States. Its stores offer products in various categories, such as dairy and deli, produce, floral, fresh meat, seafood products, grocery, general merchandise, health and beauty care, frozen food, beer and wine, and ethnic products.