OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) Shares Gap Up After Earnings Beat

OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $19.17, but opened at $20.79. OPENLANE shares last traded at $21.83, with a volume of 225,486 shares.

The specialty retailer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.07. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 6.27%. The company had revenue of $460.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.70 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on KAR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of OPENLANE from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of OPENLANE in a report on Friday, February 21st. Stephens raised OPENLANE from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut OPENLANE from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a report on Thursday, March 27th.

Institutional Trading of OPENLANE

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KAR. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of OPENLANE by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 9,278,497 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $184,085,000 after acquiring an additional 153,975 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in OPENLANE by 14.6% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,538,477 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $48,942,000 after purchasing an additional 323,696 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in OPENLANE by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,493,988 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $29,641,000 after purchasing an additional 35,164 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in OPENLANE by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,366,918 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $27,120,000 after purchasing an additional 46,041 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of OPENLANE by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 884,553 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $17,550,000 after buying an additional 111,798 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.76% of the company’s stock.

OPENLANE Trading Up 0.4 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $19.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.78. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.32.

About OPENLANE

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.