CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Trading Up 5.3% – Here’s What Happened

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)’s stock price was up 5.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $76.08 and last traded at $75.91. Approximately 2,565,185 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 7% from the average daily volume of 2,388,720 shares. The stock had previously closed at $72.09.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CSGP shares. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $96.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup cut their price target on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CoStar Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.25.

CoStar Group Trading Up 3.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a current ratio of 9.63. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.07. The firm has a market cap of $32.72 billion, a PE ratio of 174.98 and a beta of 0.82.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $692.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. Analysts expect that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CoStar Group news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,919,389.69. This represents a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 14,731 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $74.67 per share, with a total value of $1,099,963.77. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. The trade was a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CoStar Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of CoStar Group by 43.0% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 702 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CoStar Group

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.