CarGurus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CARG) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

CarGurus, Inc. (NASDAQ:CARG) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.75.

A number of brokerages recently commented on CARG. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of CarGurus in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of CarGurus from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CarGurus from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $42.00 to $34.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of CarGurus in a research note on Friday, February 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CarGurus news, COO Samuel Zales sold 10,000 shares of CarGurus stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.78, for a total transaction of $307,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,025 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,004,969.50. The trade was a 2.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Matthew Todd Quinn sold 4,678 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.78, for a total transaction of $167,378.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 195,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,005,545.10. The trade was a 2.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 61,888 shares of company stock valued at $2,229,388 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 17.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CarGurus

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in CarGurus by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,686,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $353,959,000 after purchasing an additional 225,430 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in CarGurus by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,145,350 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,091,000 after buying an additional 802,602 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of CarGurus by 4.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,298,894 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,066,000 after acquiring an additional 151,862 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of CarGurus by 3.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,055,145 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,728,000 after acquiring an additional 74,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of CarGurus by 168.7% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,524,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,704,000 after acquiring an additional 957,035 shares in the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CarGurus Price Performance

CARG opened at $29.72 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.26. CarGurus has a 12 month low of $21.18 and a 12 month high of $41.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 165.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.52.

CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $228.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.72 million. CarGurus had a return on equity of 27.14% and a net margin of 2.34%. Research analysts anticipate that CarGurus will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

About CarGurus

CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, U.S. Marketplace and Digital Wholesale. The company provides an online automotive marketplace where customers can search for new and used car listings from its dealers and sell their car to dealers and other consumers; and paid listings subscriptions for enhanced access to its marketplace that connects dealers to a large audience of informed and engaged consumers.