Retirement Systems of Alabama Decreases Position in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lowered its stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 0.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 89,538 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 538 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $6,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSGP. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of CoStar Group by 4.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,059,744 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,286,987,000 after acquiring an additional 722,153 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of CoStar Group by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,308,986 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $850,656,000 after purchasing an additional 236,407 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 2.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,117,260 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $453,534,000 after purchasing an additional 124,761 shares during the last quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC lifted its holdings in CoStar Group by 90.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 4,138,987 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $306,831,000 after buying an additional 1,961,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in CoStar Group by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,684,373 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $202,509,000 after purchasing an additional 76,916 shares during the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $96.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup cut 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. StockNews.com cut CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Monday. 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.25.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CSGP opened at $73.13 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.89. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $68.26 and a 1 year high of $100.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.98 billion, a PE ratio of 166.21 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 9.63, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $695.91 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,919,389.69. This represents a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total transaction of $439,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

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.