CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Earns Overweight Rating from Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $103.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

CSGP has been the subject of a number of other reports. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.00.

CoStar Group Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of CSGP stock opened at $78.35 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.37. The company has a market capitalization of $32.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 223.84 and a beta of 0.87. CoStar Group has a twelve month low of $68.26 and a twelve month high of $100.38.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. CoStar Group had a net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.13%. The company had revenue of $709.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.00 million. As a group, research analysts predict that CoStar Group will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

CoStar Group declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, February 18th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at CoStar Group

In other news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total transaction of $439,340.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CoStar Group

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,935,559 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $210,157,000 after buying an additional 128,540 shares during the period. Baer Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group in the 4th quarter valued at $3,756,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in CoStar Group by 64.0% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 235,397 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,852,000 after purchasing an additional 91,822 shares during the period. North Star Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in CoStar Group by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 44,462 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GF Fund Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of CoStar Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $5,562,000. 96.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.