Hilltop Holdings Inc. Invests $426,000 in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 5,651 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $426,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in CoStar Group by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 40,525 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,005,000 after purchasing an additional 9,618 shares in the last quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC raised its position in CoStar Group by 42.9% in the 3rd quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC now owns 500,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,720,000 after purchasing an additional 150,000 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 469.3% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 248,043 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $18,712,000 after purchasing an additional 204,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 16.2% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 103,547 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after buying an additional 14,468 shares in the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CoStar Group Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CSGP opened at $77.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $76.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.42. 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 market capitalization of $31.70 billion, a PE ratio of 175.73 and a beta of 0.83. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $68.26 and a 52 week high of $100.38.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. Analysts forecast that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com downgraded CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. One equities research 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 14,731 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. This trade represents a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total value of $439,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at $4,696,784.24. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.