JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buys 10,962 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 8.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 139,502 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,962 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.13% of OPENLANE worth $2,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in OPENLANE in the second quarter valued at about $3,243,000. Clifford Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in OPENLANE during the third quarter worth about $10,309,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in OPENLANE by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,475,741 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $41,799,000 after acquiring an additional 35,214 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in OPENLANE by 344.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 178,964 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $3,022,000 after acquiring an additional 138,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC raised its stake in OPENLANE by 15.3% during the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 5,045,087 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $85,161,000 after acquiring an additional 671,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at OPENLANE

In related news, CFO Brad S. Lakhia bought 4,985 shares of OPENLANE stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $20.06 per share, for a total transaction of $99,999.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 14,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $286,918.18. The trade was a 53.50 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on KAR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on OPENLANE from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of OPENLANE in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded OPENLANE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.00.

OPENLANE Price Performance

OPENLANE stock opened at $20.57 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $20.16 and a 200-day moving average of $18.10. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $12.86 and a 1 year high of $20.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 79.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.52.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.04. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 8.67% and a net margin of 4.26%. The company had revenue of $448.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $431.68 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.84 EPS for the current year.

About OPENLANE

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.