OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) Short Interest Down 7.6% in October

OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,020,000 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the October 15th total of 4,350,000 shares. Currently, 3.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 648,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.2 days.

Insider Transactions at OPENLANE

In other news, CFO Brad S. Lakhia purchased 4,985 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.06 per share, for a total transaction of $99,999.10. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 14,303 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $286,918.18. This trade represents a 53.50 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.32% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OPENLANE

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 1.7% in the second quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 8,921,967 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $148,015,000 after acquiring an additional 146,266 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 0.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,143,903 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $118,517,000 after acquiring an additional 50,773 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 15.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 671,104 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of OPENLANE by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,475,741 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $41,799,000 after buying an additional 35,214 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of OPENLANE by 0.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,759,952 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $29,708,000 after buying an additional 6,469 shares during the last quarter. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

NYSE:KAR opened at $19.87 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.44. OPENLANE has a one year low of $12.86 and a one year high of $20.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.05.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. OPENLANE’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that OPENLANE will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.