Bank of Montreal Can Sells 6,509 Shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Bank of Montreal Can cut its stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 621,900 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,509 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.15% of CoStar Group worth $46,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the second quarter worth about $49,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the second quarter worth about $54,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the second quarter worth about $73,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 493.4% in 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 last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CoStar Group Stock Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ:CSGP opened at $81.97 on Thursday. CoStar Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 186.30 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a current ratio of 9.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.68.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of CoStar Group stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at $4,696,784.24. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of CoStar Group 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,913,501 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,919,389.69. This trade represents a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSGP has been the topic of several recent research reports. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.25.

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.