Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Acquires 6,500 Shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 392,387 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. owned about 0.10% of CoStar Group worth $29,602,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in CoStar Group during the third quarter worth $40,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 31.1% during 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 raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in CoStar Group by 469.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 248,043 shares of the technology company's stock worth $18,712,000 after purchasing an additional 204,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CSGP. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of CoStar Group from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $96.00 to $83.00 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 for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup lowered their price target on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded CoStar Group from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CoStar Group presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $93.25.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

CSGP traded up $0.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $77.32. 2,480,749 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,359,162. The company has a market capitalization of $31.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 175.73 and a beta of 0.83. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $76.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.42. CoStar Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $695.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at CoStar Group

In other CoStar Group news, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $5,350,268.77. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at $142,919,389.69. The trade was a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Andrew C. Florance acquired 14,731 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,263,098 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $94,315,527.66. The trade was a 1.18 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.