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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CSGP. StockNews.com lowered shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CoStar Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.92.

Insider Activity

In other CoStar Group news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the company’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 owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,919,389.69. This represents a 3.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CoStar Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Riverbridge Partners LLC increased its position in CoStar Group by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Riverbridge Partners LLC now owns 1,943,883 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $139,163,000 after acquiring an additional 101,867 shares in the last quarter. Davis Capital Management boosted its stake in CoStar Group by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Davis Capital Management now owns 13,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $963,000 after acquiring an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in CoStar Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $205,000. Solidarity Wealth LLC bought a new position in CoStar Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,714,000. Finally, Aurora Investment Managers LLC. boosted its stake in CoStar Group by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Managers LLC. now owns 22,193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,589,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

CoStar Group stock traded up $0.43 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $73.85. The company had a trading volume of 2,189,276 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,214,693. 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 has a 52 week low of $68.26 and a 52 week high of $100.38. The company has a 50 day moving average of $74.67 and a 200-day moving average of $75.35. The firm has a market cap of $30.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 167.84 and a beta of 0.85.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.