Needham & Company LLC Cuts CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Price Target to $87.00

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) had its target price lowered by Needham & Company LLC from $100.00 to $87.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

CSGP has been the subject of several other research reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CoStar Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.00.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSGP opened at $76.79 on Wednesday. CoStar Group has a 12-month low of $68.26 and a 12-month high of $100.38. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 8.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.48 billion, a PE ratio of 219.40 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $73.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.39.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.22. CoStar Group had a net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.11%. The firm had revenue of $709.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.00 million. Research analysts anticipate that CoStar Group will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 18th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at CoStar Group

In other CoStar Group news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total value of $439,340.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CoStar Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ascent Group LLC boosted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 8,500 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 1,249 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,935,559 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $210,157,000 after purchasing an additional 128,540 shares in the last quarter. Baer Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the fourth quarter worth $3,756,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 64.0% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 235,397 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,852,000 after purchasing an additional 91,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, North Star Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. now owns 44,462 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,879 shares in the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.