CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $72.62, but opened at $76.50. CoStar Group shares last traded at $73.60, with a volume of 905,769 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CSGP. Citigroup cut their price objective on CoStar Group from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Friday, February 28th. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.07.

CoStar Group Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 8.96, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $77.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.78. The stock has a market cap of $31.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 216.43 and a beta of 0.88.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $709.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $703.00 million. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.11% and a net margin of 5.07%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 18th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at CoStar Group

In other news, CAO Cynthia Cammett Cann sold 1,749 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total value of $139,745.10. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,353,534.40. The trade was a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bamco Inc. NY raised its position in shares of CoStar Group by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 19,203,564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,374,783,000 after purchasing an additional 418,128 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in CoStar Group by 44.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,032,363 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,004,578,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,267 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CoStar Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,475,755 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $819,678,000 after buying an additional 166,769 shares during the last quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CoStar Group by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 9,313,880 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $666,781,000 after buying an additional 379,787 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polen Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $465,134,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

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.