CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Short Interest Up 5.7% in December

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,750,000 shares, an increase of 5.7% from the November 30th total of 11,120,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,840,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.1 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CSGP. Citigroup cut their price target on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $103.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Monday, December 16th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CoStar Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were 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 approximately $142,919,389.69. This represents a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total transaction of $439,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in CoStar Group during the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $54,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in CoStar Group in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $91,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in CoStar Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $104,000. 96.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CoStar Group Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of CoStar Group stock opened at $70.83 on Friday. CoStar Group has a 1 year low of $68.26 and a 1 year high of $100.38. The company has a market cap of $29.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 160.98 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 9.63, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $75.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.49.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect 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.