Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP)

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $100.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price points to a potential upside of 31.11% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on CSGP. Bank of America cut their price target on CoStar Group from $111.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup cut their target price on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, CoStar Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.25.

CoStar Group Price Performance

Shares of CSGP opened at $76.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $31.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 173.34 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $75.49 and a 200-day moving average of $77.07. The company has a current ratio of 9.63, a quick 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $692.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The business’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 14,731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,315,527.66. The trade was a 1.18 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $5,350,268.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at $142,919,389.69. The trade was 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 insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoStar Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CSGP. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the 1st quarter worth $217,000. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 56.6% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,889 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $472,000 after buying an additional 1,768 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 43.0% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 702 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 34.1% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 15,301 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,478,000 after buying an additional 3,892 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 73.0% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 32,119 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,102,000 after buying an additional 13,558 shares in the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CoStar Group

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.