CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Downgraded to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, January 10th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CoStar Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.92.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

CoStar Group stock opened at $73.22 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market capitalization of $30.02 billion, a PE ratio of 166.41 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.36. 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, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at $142,919,389.69. The trade was a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoStar Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,638 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $652,000 after buying an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,027 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $606,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 37,501 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,780,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd boosted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 19,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,443,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. Finally, Bell Bank boosted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bell Bank now owns 18,232 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,375,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. 96.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.