Corton Capital Inc. Makes New $245,000 Investment in OPENLANE, Inc. $KAR

Corton Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 10,024 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of OPENLANE during the first quarter worth about $14,725,000. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in OPENLANE by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 9,925,661 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $191,367,000 after buying an additional 647,164 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP grew its holdings in OPENLANE by 11.2% during the 1st quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 4,577,285 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $88,250,000 after acquiring an additional 461,976 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in OPENLANE by 137.1% in the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 631,165 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $12,169,000 after acquiring an additional 364,986 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of OPENLANE by 14.6% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,538,477 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $48,942,000 after acquiring an additional 323,696 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on KAR shares. Zacks Research cut shares of OPENLANE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered OPENLANE from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Barrington Research increased their price target on OPENLANE from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Stephens lifted their price objective on OPENLANE from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of OPENLANE from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, OPENLANE has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP James P. Coyle sold 194,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.94, for a total transaction of $5,436,425.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 36,851 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,616.94. The trade was a 84.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Charles S. Coleman sold 59,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.97, for a total value of $1,658,313.33. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 53,474 shares in the company, valued at $1,495,667.78. The trade was a 52.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 1.51% of the company’s stock.

OPENLANE Trading Up 0.6%

KAR opened at $26.59 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $27.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.16. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.83 and a 1-year high of $30.93. The company has a market cap of $2.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.33.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.09. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 11.65% and a net margin of 8.18%.The company had revenue of $481.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $453.26 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

OPENLANE Profile

OPENLANE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital marketplace for used vehicles, which connects sellers and buyers in North America, Europe, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The company operates through two segments, Marketplace and Finance. The Marketplace segment offers digital marketplace services for buying and selling used vehicles.