Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) Trading Down 5% on Analyst Downgrade

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR) shares traded down 5% on Thursday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on the stock from $202.00 to $183.00. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a buy rating on the stock. Avis Budget Group traded as low as $100.13 and last traded at $100.13. 410,234 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 822,222 shares. The stock had previously closed at $105.35.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CAR. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Avis Budget Group in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Avis Budget Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $118.00 to $130.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Avis Budget Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Avis Budget Group from $195.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Avis Budget Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.86.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Avis Budget Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CAR. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Avis Budget Group by 70.4% in the first quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 1,534,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $298,964,000 after acquiring an additional 634,040 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Avis Budget Group in the third quarter valued at $62,892,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of Avis Budget Group by 1,573.0% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 362,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $64,799,000 after acquiring an additional 341,269 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Avis Budget Group by 140.2% in the first quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 294,248 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,320,000 after acquiring an additional 171,743 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Avis Budget Group in the fourth quarter valued at $30,234,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Avis Budget Group Stock Down 3.7 %

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $117.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $156.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.62 billion, a PE ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 2.22.

Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $7.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by $2.95. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. Avis Budget Group had a net margin of 13.59% and a negative return on equity of 696.69%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $10.46 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Avis Budget Group, Inc. will post 15.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Avis Budget Group Company Profile

Avis Budget Group, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides car and truck rentals, car sharing, and ancillary products and services to businesses and consumers in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia, and Australasia. It operates the Avis brand, that offers vehicle rental and other mobility solutions to the premium commercial and leisure segments of the travel industry; and the Zipcar brand, a car sharing network, as well as the Budget brand, a supplier of vehicle rental and other mobility solutions focused primarily on more value-conscious customers comprising Budget car rental, and Budget Truck, a local, and one-way truck and cargo van rental businesses with a fleet of approximately 19,000 vehicles, which are rented through a network of dealer-operated and company-operated locations that serve the light commercial and consumer sectors in the continental United States.