Share Buyback Plan Announced by CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) Board of Directors

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, February 18th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

CoStar Group Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ CSGP traded up $1.42 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $75.48. 5,451,375 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,543,701. CoStar Group has a 52-week low of $68.26 and a 52-week high of $100.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.94 billion, a PE ratio of 171.54 and a beta of 0.87. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $73.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.34.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. Analysts forecast that CoStar Group will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CSGP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on CoStar Group from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of CoStar Group in a research report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $83.00 target price on shares of CoStar Group in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on CoStar Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CoStar Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.23.

Insider Activity at CoStar Group

In related news, insider Michael J. Desmarais sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.88, for a total value 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 $4,696,784.24. The trade was a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.57% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.