Zacks restated their outperform rating on shares of Penske Automotive Group (NYSE:PAG) in a report issued on Friday. They currently have a US$58.00 target price on the stock.
Zacks’ analyst wrote, “Penske Automotive’s fourth-quarter 2014 earnings improved 14.5% to US$0.79, marginally missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$0.80. Revenues grew 16.3% year over year to US$4.41 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of US$4.37 billion. The year-over-year rise was driven by a 10.5% increase in total retail sales to 98,251 units, including a 6.8% rise in same-store retail sales to 94,357 units. Penske Automotive is poised to benefit from increasing dealerships, rising sales of new vehicles, a strong financial position and dividend hike. It is also introducing initiatives to drive new market penetration and improvements in used-vehicle remarketing. Thus, we are maintaining our Outperform recommendation.”
Zacks has also modified their ratings on a number of other consumer discretionary stocks in the few days. The firm upgraded shares of Urban Outfitters, Inc. from an underperform rating to a neutral rating. The firm now has a US$40.00 price target on that stock. Also, Zacks upgraded shares of Francesca’s Holdings Corp from an underperform rating to a neutral rating. Zacks now has a US$16.20 price target on that stock. Finally, Zacks upgraded shares of CONN’S, Inc. from an underperform rating to a neutral rating. Zacks now has a US$25.00 price target on that stock.
Shares of Penske Automotive Group (NYSE:PAG) traded up 2.04% on Friday, hitting US$48.94. The stock had a trading volume of 421,597 shares. Penske Automotive Group has a 52 week low of US$36.36 and a 52 week high of US$52.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average of US$49.20 and a 200-day moving average of US$46.47. The company has a market cap of US$4.417 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.12.
Penske Automotive Group (NYSE:PAG) last released its earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported US$0.79 EPS for the quarter, meeting the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of US$0.79. The company had revenue of US$4.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of US$4.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted US$0.68 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Penske Automotive Group will post US$3.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of US$0.22 per share. This represents a US$0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. This is an increase from Penske Automotive Group’s previous quarterly dividend of US$0.21.