Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 22,188 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 4.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 511,952 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 22,188 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.47% of OPENLANE worth $8,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KAR. Invenomic Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of OPENLANE by 277.0% in the first quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP now owns 1,529,680 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $26,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123,953 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted 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 valued at $85,161,000 after buying an additional 671,104 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in OPENLANE during the second quarter valued at $3,243,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 293.5% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 243,164 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $4,034,000 after buying an additional 181,364 shares during the period. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 14.4% during the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,441,923 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $23,922,000 after buying an additional 181,130 shares during the period. 99.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of OPENLANE in a research note on Monday, November 4th.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

NYSE:KAR opened at $19.87 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $16.77 and a 200 day moving average of $17.05. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $12.86 and a 52-week high of $20.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.44.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $448.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $431.68 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Brad S. Lakhia acquired 4,985 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $20.06 per share, for a total transaction of $99,999.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 14,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $286,918.18. This represents a 53.50 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

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.