CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

CarGurus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CARG) gapped up prior to trading on Friday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $27.00 to $39.00. The stock had previously closed at $33.36, but opened at $37.75. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. CarGurus shares last traded at $35.58, with a volume of 165,311 shares trading hands.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of CarGurus from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on CarGurus from $32.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $32.00 target price on shares of CarGurus in a report on Monday, September 9th. BTIG Research raised their target price on CarGurus from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, B. Riley upped their price target on CarGurus from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.59.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Dafna Sarnoff sold 3,107 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.42, for a total transaction of $88,300.94. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 128,952 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,664,815.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CMO Dafna Sarnoff sold 3,107 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.42, for a total value of $88,300.94. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 128,952 shares in the company, valued at $3,664,815.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Samuel Zales sold 25,168 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.34, for a total transaction of $713,261.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 480,583 shares in the company, valued at $13,619,722.22. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 61,065 shares of company stock valued at $1,823,794. 17.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CarGurus

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in CarGurus by 18.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 95,304 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,200,000 after purchasing an additional 14,961 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its holdings in CarGurus by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 74,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,731,000 after purchasing an additional 980 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in CarGurus by 533.3% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 57,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,316,000 after purchasing an additional 48,000 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in CarGurus by 4.7% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 171,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,947,000 after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in CarGurus in the first quarter worth $49,000. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CarGurus Stock Up 4.3 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.91. The company has a market capitalization of $3.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -75.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.55.

CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.07. CarGurus had a negative net margin of 5.57% and a positive return on equity of 11.06%. The company had revenue of $218.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.85 million. Equities research analysts expect that CarGurus, Inc. will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

About CarGurus

CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, U.S. Marketplace and Digital Wholesale. The company provides an online automotive marketplace where customers can search for new and used car listings from its dealers and sell their car to dealers and other consumers; and paid listings subscriptions for enhanced access to its marketplace that connects dealers to a large audience of informed and engaged consumers.