CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Receives $88.07 Average Target Price from Brokerages

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $88.07.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CSGP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $83.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, February 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $89.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, December 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Cynthia Cammett Cann sold 1,749 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,353,534.40. This represents a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoStar Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 valued at $177,913,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001,177 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 5,940 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new stake in CoStar Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $621,000. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in CoStar Group by 101.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 14,553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,098,000 after acquiring an additional 7,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of CoStar Group by 79.7% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 293,148 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $22,115,000 after acquiring an additional 130,045 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

CoStar Group Price Performance

NASDAQ CSGP opened at $72.62 on Friday. 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 has a 12 month low of $68.26 and a 12 month high of $95.71. The stock has a market cap of $29.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 207.49 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day moving average is $77.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $75.79.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.11%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that CoStar Group will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

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

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.