CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Short Interest Up 8.1% in December

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 12,700,000 shares, a growth of 8.1% from the December 15th total of 11,750,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,840,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. This trade represents a 1.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value 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 trade represents a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoStar Group

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in CoStar Group by 534.8% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 419 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $91,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 55.1% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,374 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 488 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

Shares of CSGP stock opened at $73.85 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $30.28 billion, a PE ratio of 167.84 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.35. 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 has a 52-week low of $68.26 and a 52-week high of $100.38.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

CoStar Group Company 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.