CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Wells Fargo & Company Analyst Says

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) had its price target raised by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $65.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price suggests a potential downside of 15.12% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on CSGP. Craig Hallum initiated coverage on CoStar Group in a research report on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Wednesday. William Blair started coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, February 28th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $99.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.31.

CoStar Group Price Performance

CoStar Group stock opened at $76.58 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.41 billion, a PE ratio of 218.80 and a beta of 0.88. CoStar Group has a 12-month low of $68.26 and a 12-month high of $92.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $78.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.24. The company has a current ratio of 8.96, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The business had revenue of $709.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $703.00 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.11%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CoStar Group will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CoStar Group news, CAO Cynthia Cammett Cann sold 1,749 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total value of $139,745.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,456 shares in the company, valued at $2,353,534.40. This trade represents a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSGP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 73.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,358,331 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $177,913,000 after acquiring an additional 1,001,177 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in CoStar Group by 497.9% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 7,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 5,940 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in CoStar Group by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,950 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $144,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC acquired a new position in CoStar Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,446,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 91.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,249,188 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $169,678,000 after buying an additional 1,073,793 shares during the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently 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.