Robert W. Baird Raises OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) Price Target to $20.00

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from $18.00 to $20.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the specialty retailer’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price target points to a potential upside of 14.61% from the stock’s current price.

KAR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of OPENLANE in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Bank of America upgraded OPENLANE from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $16.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, OPENLANE presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.60.

OPENLANE Price Performance

Shares of KAR opened at $17.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.15. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.19. OPENLANE has a 52-week low of $12.86 and a 52-week high of $17.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a PE ratio of -9.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.42.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The specialty retailer reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.03. OPENLANE had a positive return on equity of 7.49% and a negative net margin of 9.37%. The business had revenue of $391.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $392.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. OPENLANE’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that OPENLANE will post 0.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James E. Money II sold 14,822 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.83, for a total transaction of $234,632.26. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 44,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $706,081.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other OPENLANE news, CEO Peter J. Kelly acquired 10,000 shares of OPENLANE stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $14.87 per share, with a total value of $148,700.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 323,355 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,808,288.85. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider James E. Money II sold 14,822 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.83, for a total value of $234,632.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 44,604 shares in the company, valued at $706,081.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.74% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OPENLANE

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of OPENLANE by 77.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 53,777 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $930,000 after acquiring an additional 23,462 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the first quarter worth about $242,000. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of OPENLANE by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 3,900,178 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $57,762,000 after acquiring an additional 195,200 shares during the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the fourth quarter worth about $6,009,000. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the fourth quarter worth about $4,069,000. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

OPENLANE Company 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.