OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of OPENLANE in a research report on Friday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of OPENLANE from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Stephens upgraded shares of OPENLANE from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday, February 28th.

OPENLANE Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of KAR stock opened at $21.85 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $19.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a PE ratio of 41.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.32. OPENLANE has a 12-month low of $15.44 and a 12-month high of $22.47.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $460.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.70 million. OPENLANE had a net margin of 6.27% and a return on equity of 9.20%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that OPENLANE will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KAR. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in OPENLANE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,941,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in OPENLANE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,793,000. TFJ Management LLC bought a new position in OPENLANE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,465,000. Advisory Research Inc. bought a new position in OPENLANE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,761,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in OPENLANE by 148.1% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 805,461 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $15,980,000 after acquiring an additional 480,804 shares during the last quarter. 99.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About OPENLANE

OPENLANE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital marketplace for used vehicles, which connects sellers and buyers in North America, Europe, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The company operates through two segments, Marketplace and Finance. The Marketplace segment offers digital marketplace services for buying and selling used vehicles.