Jennison Associates LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Jennison Associates LLC lessened its holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 10.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 455,322 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 53,829 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $34,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CSGP. Vulcan Value Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 90.1% during the second quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 4,138,987 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $306,831,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961,917 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in CoStar Group by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,808,027 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,140,650,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,564 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. purchased a new position in CoStar Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $60,761,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in CoStar Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,692,000. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of CoStar Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,987,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com lowered CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded CoStar Group from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $96.00 to $83.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CoStar Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.25.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CSGP opened at $76.99 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 9.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $75.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.07. CoStar Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $68.26 and a 52-week high of $100.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 174.98 and a beta of 0.82.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.06. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The firm had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at CoStar Group

In related news, CEO Andrew C. Florance purchased 14,731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,315,527.66. This represents a 1.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $5,350,268.77. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Company 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.