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How Clinton’s defeat turbocharged a South Florida stock

Back on Aug. 18, I wrote a blog about a “Black Swan” event that hammered the stock of the GEO Group (NYSE: GEO), a Boca Raton company that operates prisons and other types of detention facilities.

Shares dropped 40 percent after the Justice Department said it wanted to end the use of privately run prisons. With Hillary Clinton leading in the race for the White House, there were widespread expectations that the policy would continue.

Investors who bought at the dip, however, have made out quite nicely. Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week reversed the Department of Justice order, saying the Bureau of Prisons will return to its previous policy. Geo Group has now rallied over several months from a 52-week low of $16.26 to trade at $48.34 on Friday. Investors who bought on weakness have nearly tripled their money.

After the initial plunge, I wrote a second blog on Aug. 29 that quoted one analyst as saying Geo was a buy. “As far as I am concerned, GEO has simply fallen too hard, too fast,” Achilles Research said in a blog post.

I pointed out that Geo had a juicy 12.43 percent dividend.

With the price rise, Geo’s dividend is now at 5.91 percent. That’s still fairly high by overall market standards.

So what’s ahead? The Trump administration has issued policy directives that give more latitude to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to detain those who are in the country illegally. The Secretary of Homeland Security has told ICE and the Border Patrol to “take all necessary action and allocate all available resources to expand each respective agencies detention capabilities and capacities,”  David Donahue, president of Geo Group’s Corrections and Detention Division, said during an earnings conference call as reported by Seeking Alpha.

“We are having ongoing discussions with ICE about our capabilities, which include 3,000 idle beds and 2,000 underutilized beds. These discussions include several GEO facilities, which have significant capacity are immediately available and would meet ICE’s national detention standards,” Donahue said.

With every presidential election, there are winners and losers in the stock market. So far, Geo looks like one of the biggest winners under the Trump administration.

 

 

 

 

 

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BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.