New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 22.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 258,480 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 73,492 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of CoStar Group worth $18,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSGP. Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 31,828 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,401,000 after acquiring an additional 6,939 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 175.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,979 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 1,899 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in CoStar Group by 25.4% during the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,435 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 1,507 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in CoStar Group by 17.0% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,533 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust purchased a new position in CoStar Group during the third quarter worth about $283,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now directly owns 58,798 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,696,784.24. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CSGP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $103.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on CoStar Group from $100.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of CoStar Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.00.

CoStar Group Price Performance

Shares of CSGP opened at $76.79 on Friday. CoStar Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $73.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $75.42. The company has a market cap of $31.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 219.40 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 9.63, a current ratio of 8.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

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, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.11% and a net margin of 5.07%. The business had revenue of $709.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.00 million. On average, research analysts forecast that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CoStar Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 18th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management 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.