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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $92.92.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

Shares of CoStar Group stock traded up $0.43 during trading on Monday, reaching $73.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,189,276 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,214,693. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $74.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.35. The firm has a market cap of $30.28 billion, a PE ratio of 167.84 and a beta of 0.85. CoStar Group has a 52 week low of $68.26 and a 52 week high of $100.38. 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 (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. CoStar Group’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that CoStar Group will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at CoStar Group

In other news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of CoStar Group 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CoStar Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in CoStar Group by 4.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,059,744 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,286,987,000 after purchasing an additional 722,153 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in CoStar Group by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,308,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $850,656,000 after purchasing an additional 236,407 shares during the period. Vulcan Value Partners LLC lifted its position in CoStar Group by 90.1% during the second quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 4,138,987 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $306,831,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,917 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in CoStar Group by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,684,373 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $202,509,000 after purchasing an additional 76,916 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in CoStar Group by 16.9% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,358,526 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $174,861,000 after purchasing an additional 341,046 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

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.