William Blair Investment Management LLC Cuts Holdings in OPENLANE, Inc. $KAR

William Blair Investment Management LLC lowered its position in OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 7.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,321,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 106,274 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in OPENLANE were worth $32,314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of KAR. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in OPENLANE in the 1st quarter worth about $14,725,000. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of OPENLANE by 7.0% in the first quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 9,925,661 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $191,367,000 after buying an additional 647,164 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of OPENLANE by 11.2% during the 1st quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 4,577,285 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $88,250,000 after buying an additional 461,976 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of OPENLANE by 137.1% during the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 631,165 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $12,169,000 after buying an additional 364,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in OPENLANE by 14.6% in the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,538,477 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $48,942,000 after acquiring an additional 323,696 shares during the period. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KAR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barrington Research upped their price objective on shares of OPENLANE from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of OPENLANE from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Stephens lifted their price objective on OPENLANE from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Zacks Research cut OPENLANE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised OPENLANE from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

Shares of OPENLANE stock opened at $26.14 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $28.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.44. The company has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.32, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.33. OPENLANE, Inc. has a one year low of $15.72 and a one year high of $30.93.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.09. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 11.65% and a net margin of 8.18%.The company had revenue of $481.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.26 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Charles S. Coleman sold 59,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.97, for a total value of $1,658,313.33. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 53,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,495,667.78. This represents a 52.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP James P. Coyle sold 194,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.94, for a total transaction of $5,436,425.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 36,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,616.94. This represents a 84.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.51% of the company’s stock.

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.