Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) Stock Price Down 5.6%

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR)’s share price traded down 5.6% on Friday . The company traded as low as $102.69 and last traded at $103.00. 187,713 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 747,396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $109.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CAR shares. StockNews.com cut Avis Budget Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 6th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of Avis Budget Group from $145.00 to $117.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Avis Budget Group from $190.00 to $187.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. 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 research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Avis Budget Group from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $163.14.

Avis Budget Group Price Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $110.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $123.37. The stock has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 2.21.

Avis Budget Group (NASDAQ:CAR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported ($3.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.65) by ($0.56). Avis Budget Group had a negative return on equity of 480.48% and a net margin of 10.05%. The business had revenue of $2.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.72 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Avis Budget Group, Inc. will post 12.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Avis Budget Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CAR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Avis Budget Group in the second quarter valued at about $19,978,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Avis Budget Group during the fourth quarter worth about $30,234,000. Par Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Avis Budget Group by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Par Capital Management Inc. now owns 848,959 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $150,486,000 after buying an additional 117,600 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Avis Budget Group by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 327,275 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $58,013,000 after buying an additional 105,867 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its position in Avis Budget Group by 1,339.3% during the first quarter. Natixis now owns 101,242 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,398,000 after purchasing an additional 94,208 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

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.