Howard Capital Management Inc. Acquires 362 Shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,216 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $803,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Redmond Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Redmond Asset Management LLC now owns 15,615 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the last quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $129,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Mattern Capital Management LLC raised its stake in CoStar Group by 15.4% during the 4th quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 8,878 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $636,000 after buying an additional 1,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group during the 4th quarter valued at $4,465,000. Institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CoStar Group

In other news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. The trade was a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on CSGP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of CoStar Group from $99.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.00.

CoStar Group Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of CoStar Group stock opened at $76.79 on Monday. CoStar Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a current ratio of 8.96. The company has a market capitalization of $31.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 219.40 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.86 and a 200 day moving average of $75.44.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The firm had revenue of $709.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.00 million. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.11% and a net margin of 5.07%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share 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 repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.