CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Board of Directors Announces Stock Repurchase Program

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, February 18th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CSGP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup cut their price target on CoStar Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on CoStar Group in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $83.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.23.

CoStar Group Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of CSGP traded up $1.42 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $75.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,451,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,543,701. The stock has a market cap of $30.94 billion, a PE ratio of 171.54 and a beta of 0.87. 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 has a 12-month low of $68.26 and a 12-month high of $100.38. The company’s 50 day moving average is $73.81 and its 200 day moving average is $75.34.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. Equities analysts anticipate that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at CoStar Group

In related news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was 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 directly owns 58,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,696,784.24. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

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.