Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Reduces Holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lowered its position in shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 95.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 380 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 7,300 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $29,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in CoStar Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in CoStar Group in the 1st quarter valued at $4,223,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in CoStar Group by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 40,525 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,005,000 after purchasing an additional 9,618 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank grew its position in CoStar Group by 111.9% during the 2nd quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 16,726 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,240,000 after purchasing an additional 8,833 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Telemark Asset Management LLC increased its stake in CoStar Group by 42.9% in the third quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC now owns 500,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,720,000 after purchasing an additional 150,000 shares during the period. 96.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSGP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut 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 research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Andrew C. Florance bought 14,731 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $74.67 per share, with a total value of $1,099,963.77. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at $94,315,527.66. This represents a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total value of $439,340.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,696,784.24. The trade was a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSGP opened at $81.97 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $75.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.71. The company has a market capitalization of $33.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 186.30 and a beta of 0.82. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $68.26 and a 1-year high of $100.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 9.63 and a quick ratio of 9.63.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect 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.