DnB Asset Management AS Purchases 60,782 Shares of CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 57.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 165,959 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,782 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $11,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CSGP. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,059,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,286,987,000 after buying an additional 722,153 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in CoStar Group by 2.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,308,986 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $850,656,000 after acquiring an additional 236,407 shares during the period. Polen Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $465,134,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the fourth quarter worth about $390,755,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CoStar Group by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,818,249 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $201,758,000 after acquiring an additional 133,876 shares during the period. 96.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CoStar Group news, CAO Cynthia Cammett Cann sold 1,749 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total value of $139,745.10. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 29,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,353,534.40. This represents a 5.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on CSGP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on CoStar Group in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Citigroup reduced 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 report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of CoStar Group from $100.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Craig Hallum began coverage on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Two equities research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.07.

CoStar Group Price Performance

Shares of CoStar Group stock opened at $79.31 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $76.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.81. CoStar Group, Inc. has a one year low of $68.26 and a one year high of $96.98. The stock has a market cap of $32.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 226.60 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a current ratio of 8.96.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. The business had revenue of $709.40 million for 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%. Equities analysts expect that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

CoStar Group declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, February 18th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors 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.