CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Short Interest Up 47.7% in October

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) saw a large increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,920,000 shares, an increase of 47.7% from the October 15th total of 8,070,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,510,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CSGP has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $96.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on CoStar Group from $105.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America reduced their price target on CoStar Group from $111.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on CoStar Group from $107.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at CoStar Group

In other CoStar Group news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,919,389.69. The trade was a 3.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 14,731 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. This represents a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CoStar Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in CoStar Group in the second quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its position in CoStar Group by 43.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 702 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

Shares of CSGP stock traded down $3.79 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $71.25. 3,569,653 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,384,428. CoStar Group has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 161.94 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $75.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $77.52. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.25 earnings per share. Analysts predict that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group Company Profile

CoStar Group, Inc provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information.