Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Increases Stake in OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 19.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,575 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after buying an additional 590 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in OPENLANE were worth $69,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of KAR. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 2.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 531,985 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $10,257,000 after buying an additional 13,817 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,822,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the 4th quarter valued at about $4,115,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in OPENLANE by 1,949.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 43,033 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 40,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in OPENLANE by 119.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 306,038 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $6,072,000 after purchasing an additional 166,536 shares during the last quarter. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on KAR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of OPENLANE from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised OPENLANE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on OPENLANE from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, OPENLANE presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Insider Transactions at OPENLANE

In other news, EVP James P. Coyle sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.72, for a total value of $152,040.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 36,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $793,018.92. This trade represents a 16.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.51% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

OPENLANE stock opened at $25.24 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.25. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.44 and a 1 year high of $26.04. The company has a market capitalization of $2.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.41.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.07. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 7.15%. The company had revenue of $460.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $445.70 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

OPENLANE Company Profile

OPENLANE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital marketplace for used vehicles, which connects sellers and buyers in North America, Europe, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The company operates through two segments, Marketplace and Finance. The Marketplace segment offers digital marketplace services for buying and selling used vehicles.