Needham & Company LLC Issues Pessimistic Forecast for CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Stock Price

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) had its price objective decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $100.00 to $87.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. 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 on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $103.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $83.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CoStar Group presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.00.

CoStar Group Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.39. The firm has a market cap of $31.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.40 and a beta of 0.87.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. CoStar Group had a net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.11%. The business had revenue of $709.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.00 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that CoStar Group will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, February 18th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total transaction of $439,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. The trade was a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CoStar Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 19,203,564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,374,783,000 after buying an additional 418,128 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in CoStar Group by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,059,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,286,987,000 after purchasing an additional 722,153 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in CoStar Group by 44.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,032,363 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,004,578,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,267 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in CoStar Group by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,475,755 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $819,678,000 after purchasing an additional 166,769 shares during the period. Finally, Akre Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in CoStar Group by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Akre Capital Management LLC now owns 9,313,880 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $666,781,000 after purchasing an additional 379,787 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

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.