Erste Asset Management GmbH Invests $17.35 Million in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 230,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,351,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vulcan Value Partners LLC raised its stake in CoStar Group by 90.1% during the second quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 4,138,987 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $306,831,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,917 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the 2nd quarter worth $60,761,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in CoStar Group in the second quarter valued at $46,692,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in CoStar Group during the second quarter valued at about $34,987,000. Finally, Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in CoStar Group by 8,314.1% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 409,934 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,925,000 after acquiring an additional 405,062 shares during the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSGP. Royal Bank of Canada lowered CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $96.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. 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. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.25.

Insider Transactions at CoStar Group

In related news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,913,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,919,389.69. This represents a 3.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Andrew C. Florance acquired 14,731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $74.67 per share, with a total value of $1,099,963.77. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,315,527.66. This trade represents a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

CoStar Group Price Performance

CSGP stock opened at $81.34 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $75.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.50. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.26 and a 52-week high of $100.38. The company has a market capitalization of $33.35 billion, a PE ratio of 184.87 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $692.60 million for 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. Analysts predict that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group 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.