Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Makes New Investment in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,226 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $621,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC purchased a new position in CoStar Group during the third quarter worth about $278,000. State Street Corp increased its position in CoStar Group by 4.4% during the 3rd 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. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 14,926 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,126,000 after buying an additional 6,175 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 392,387 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,602,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of CoStar Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $48,768,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other CoStar Group news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Andrew C. Florance acquired 14,731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at $94,315,527.66. The trade was a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on CSGP. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, September 6th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $96.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.25.

CoStar Group Stock Up 0.9 %

CSGP opened at $78.25 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $32.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 177.84 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.09. CoStar Group, Inc. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CoStar Group, Inc. 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.