CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) Releases Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.06 EPS

CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.06), Zacks reports. CarGurus had a positive return on equity of 13.96% and a negative net margin of 5.47%.

CarGurus Stock Performance

Shares of CarGurus stock traded down $0.55 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $37.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,466,643 shares, compared to its average volume of 758,822. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.94 and a 200 day moving average of $33.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -81.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.59. CarGurus has a 52-week low of $21.18 and a 52-week high of $41.33.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on CarGurus from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. B. Riley lifted their price target on shares of CarGurus from $30.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of CarGurus from $32.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. DA Davidson raised their target price on shares of CarGurus from $26.50 to $38.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of CarGurus from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at CarGurus

In other news, COO Samuel Zales sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.36, for a total transaction of $767,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 400,025 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,344,959. The trade was a 4.76 % 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, CEO Zachary Emerson Hallowell sold 4,580 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.78, for a total transaction of $163,872.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 120,051 shares in the company, valued at $4,295,424.78. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 59,388 shares of company stock worth $2,204,338. 17.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About CarGurus

CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, U.S. Marketplace and Digital Wholesale. The company provides an online automotive marketplace where customers can search for new and used car listings from its dealers and sell their car to dealers and other consumers; and paid listings subscriptions for enhanced access to its marketplace that connects dealers to a large audience of informed and engaged consumers.