Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 7,478 Shares of The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,536,450 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 7,478 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.28% of Greenbrier Companies worth $215,688,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Greenbrier Companies during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,210,000. Centiva Capital LP bought a new position in Greenbrier Companies in the 3rd quarter valued at $408,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Greenbrier Companies during the 3rd quarter valued at $639,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 9,233 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Greenbrier Companies by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 117,388 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $5,950,000 after buying an additional 16,680 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Greenbrier Companies presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

Greenbrier Companies Stock Performance

Shares of GBX opened at $45.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of 7.96, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.56. The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $41.40 and a 1 year high of $71.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $57.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.55.

Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The transportation company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $875.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $849.51 million. Greenbrier Companies had a return on equity of 12.10% and a net margin of 5.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.96 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Greenbrier Companies Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 13th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 22nd will be issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 22nd. This is an increase from Greenbrier Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. Greenbrier Companies’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.94%.

Insider Activity at Greenbrier Companies

In other Greenbrier Companies news, COO William J. Krueger sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.21, for a total transaction of $126,420.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 42,714 shares in the company, valued at $2,699,951.94. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.78% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Greenbrier Companies

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets railroad freight car equipment in North America, Europe, and South America. It operates through three segments: Manufacturing; Maintenance Services; and Leasing & Management Services. The Manufacturing segment offers covered hopper cars, gondolas, open top hoppers, boxcars, center partition cars, tank cars, sustainable conversions, double-stack railcars, auto-max ii, multi-max, and multi-max plus products, intermodal cars, automobile transport, coil steel and metals, flat cars, sliding wall cars, pressurized tank cars, and non-pressurized tank cars.