CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) Position Boosted by Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its stake in shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 27.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,127 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,249 shares during the period. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $1,726,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 73.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,358,331 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $177,913,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001,177 shares during the last quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 42.9% during the third quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC now owns 500,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,720,000 after purchasing an additional 150,000 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 16.2% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 103,547 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 14,468 shares during the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new stake in CoStar Group during the third quarter worth about $621,000. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in CoStar Group by 497.9% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 7,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $511,000 after acquiring an additional 5,940 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $99.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $88.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $89.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Cynthia Cammett Cann sold 1,749 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total transaction of $139,745.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 29,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,353,534.40. This trade represents a 5.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CoStar Group Trading Up 1.3 %

CoStar Group stock opened at $79.40 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 8.96 and a quick ratio of 9.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.56 billion, a PE ratio of 226.86 and a beta of 0.93. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $68.26 and a 12-month high of $97.91.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.22. The business had revenue of $709.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $703.00 million. CoStar Group had a net margin of 5.07% and a return on equity of 3.11%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, February 18th that allows the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.