Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Could you please quickly review Corrections Corp. of America for me? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Corrections Corp. of America, $35.15, symbol CXW on New York (Shares outstanding: 116.4 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; www.cca.com), is a real estate investment trust that owns and manages prisons. It also provides rehabilitation, educational, health care and recreational services in these facilities. The trust is one of the largest prison operators in the U.S., behind only the federal government and three states. It owns or controls 52 correctional and detention facilities and manages 12 more under government contracts. In all, it has about 84,500 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Corrections Corp. jumped from about $32 to today’s price in early August 2014. That reflected heightened investor interest in for-profit prison stocks in the wake of a flood of illegal immigrants, including children, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The company has a considerable number of open beds, and it also has a long-standing relationship with federal agencies that hand out contracts to house undocumented immigrants, including children. The Obama administration…