Benjamin Edwards Inc. Purchases 19,529 Shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP - Free Report) by 652.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,521 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 19,529 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.'s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $1,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CSGP. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 40,525 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,005,000 after acquiring an additional 9,618 shares during the last quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 42.9% in the 3rd quarter. Telemark Asset Management LLC now owns 500,000 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $37,720,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 469.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 248,043 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $18,712,000 after acquiring an additional 204,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 103,547 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $7,812,000 after acquiring an additional 14,468 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.60% of the company's stock.

CoStar Group Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSGP traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $77.34. The company had a trading volume of 1,275,699 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,383,788. CoStar Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.26 and a twelve month high of $100.38. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $31.71 billion, a PE ratio of 175.07 and a beta of 0.83. The stock's 50 day moving average is $76.15 and its 200-day moving average is $76.42.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. CoStar Group's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Andrew C. Florance acquired 14,731 shares of the company's 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 completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. This represents a 1.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total transaction of $439,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.57% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CSGP. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded CoStar Group from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $96.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. JMP Securities restated 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 cut CoStar Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus 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.