Needham & Company LLC Boosts CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) Price Target to $25.00

CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $24.00 to $25.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price indicates a potential upside of 12.21% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on CARG. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of CarGurus from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of CarGurus in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on CarGurus from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CarGurus presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

CarGurus Price Performance

CARG opened at $22.28 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.28. CarGurus has a one year low of $16.70 and a one year high of $24.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 123.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.57.

CarGurus (NASDAQ:CARG) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.01. CarGurus had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 3.40%. The company had revenue of $223.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $220.05 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that CarGurus will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Andrea Lee Eldridge sold 22,358 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.13, for a total transaction of $494,782.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 117,432 shares in the company, valued at $2,598,770.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Andrea Lee Eldridge sold 22,358 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.13, for a total transaction of $494,782.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 117,432 shares in the company, valued at $2,598,770.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Samuel Zales sold 17,668 shares of CarGurus stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.42, for a total transaction of $378,448.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 548,845 shares in the company, valued at $11,756,259.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 113,793 shares of company stock worth $2,523,342 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its position in shares of CarGurus by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 25,778 shares of the company’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 4,885 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CarGurus by 5.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 19,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,000 after buying an additional 1,018 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in CarGurus during the first quarter worth $49,000. Swiss National Bank raised its position in CarGurus by 4.7% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 171,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,947,000 after acquiring an additional 7,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in CarGurus by 533.3% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 57,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,316,000 after acquiring an additional 48,000 shares during the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About CarGurus

CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, U.S. Marketplace and Digital Wholesale. The company provides an online automotive marketplace where customers can search for new and used car listings from its dealers and sell their car to dealers and other consumers; and paid listings subscriptions for enhanced access to its marketplace that connects dealers to a large audience of informed and engaged consumers.