Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 2,512 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 19.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,137 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,512 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in OPENLANE were worth $300,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of OPENLANE in the fourth quarter worth $5,822,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in OPENLANE by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,475,741 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $41,799,000 after buying an additional 35,214 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in OPENLANE in the 4th quarter valued at about $254,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of OPENLANE by 344.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 178,964 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $3,022,000 after buying an additional 138,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guidance Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of OPENLANE during the 4th quarter worth approximately $472,000. 99.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

Shares of KAR opened at $19.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.35, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.53. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.44 and a 52 week high of $22.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $20.78 and a 200-day moving average of $19.23.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The specialty retailer reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $455.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.64 million. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 6.27%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KAR. StockNews.com cut shares of OPENLANE from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of OPENLANE in a report on Friday, February 21st. Stephens raised OPENLANE from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded OPENLANE from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

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.