Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:GO)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:GO) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $127,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GO. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Grocery Outlet by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,342,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $251,871,000 after buying an additional 199,926 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Grocery Outlet by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,273,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,001,000 after buying an additional 101,056 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Grocery Outlet by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,926,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,814,000 after buying an additional 216,257 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Grocery Outlet by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,940,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,270,000 after buying an additional 406,824 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Grocery Outlet by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,749,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,115,000 after buying an additional 264,501 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Luke D. Thompson sold 1,332 shares of Grocery Outlet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.43, for a total transaction of $29,876.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 32,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $724,623.58. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Grocery Outlet news, EVP Luke D. Thompson sold 1,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.43, for a total value of $29,876.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $724,623.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John E. Bachman purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $20.09 per share, with a total value of $200,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 25,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $519,768.48. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 4.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on GO. UBS Group cut their price target on Grocery Outlet from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Telsey Advisory Group cut their target price on Grocery Outlet from $37.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Roth Mkm cut their target price on Grocery Outlet from $27.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Grocery Outlet from $43.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Grocery Outlet from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Grocery Outlet has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.90.

Grocery Outlet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GO opened at $21.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $2.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.90 and a beta of 0.09. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.85. Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $19.73 and a fifty-two week high of $36.54.

Grocery Outlet (NASDAQ:GO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.10). Grocery Outlet had a return on equity of 5.46% and a net margin of 1.60%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Grocery Outlet Profile

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.