West Tower Group LLC Purchases New Shares in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

West Tower Group LLC purchased a new stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $302,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CSGP. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in CoStar Group during the second quarter worth about $49,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in CoStar Group during the second quarter worth about $54,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in CoStar Group during the second quarter worth about $73,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in CoStar Group by 493.4% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,080 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares during the period. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $96.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.25.

Insider Activity at CoStar Group

In related news, CEO Andrew C. Florance acquired 14,731 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $74.67 per share, with a total value of $1,099,963.77. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at $94,315,527.66. This represents a 1.18 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,913,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,919,389.69. This trade represents a 3.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

CoStar Group Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSGP opened at $80.28 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $76.71. The firm has a market cap of $32.91 billion, a PE ratio of 182.45 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 earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. CoStar Group had a net margin of 6.57% and a return on equity of 3.53%. The business had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. CoStar Group’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

CoStar Group 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.