CoStar Group's stock on Monday jumped ahead of earnings. The real estate information technology company's report on Tuesday will test the rally.
CoStar stock closed at $29.17 on Monday, up 5.5%, the largest gain since July 16, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Shares rose 8.2% at its intraday high -- its largest percentage increase since July 2024. Still, the stock is down 57% so far this year. Last week it hit $27.14, its lowest close since 2017.
CoStar is "the 'Bloomberg of commercial real estate $(CRE)$ data,'" BMO Capital Markets analysts Jeffrey Silber and Ryan Griffin wrote in a July 17 note, referring to the Bloomberg financial data terminal widely used by Wall Street. In addition to its commercial real estate information and technology offerings, CoStar offers apartment rentals through Apartments.com and homes for sale through Homes.com, a relatively new entrant to the home listing portal landscape.
CoStar bounced along with other housing services-related stocks on Monday, including Rocket and Zillow Group, two companies that also operate housing marketplaces. The 10-year Treasury yield, a benchmark for mortgage rate movements, fell, helping housing-related stocks.
( News Corp, which owns Barron's, also operates a U.S. home listing portal, Realtor.com, through its Move subsidiary.)
CoStar also may have gotten a boost by second-quarter earnings expectations. Analysts are looking for non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, earnings of 29 cents a share on roughly $929 million in revenue, according to FactSet. In the year-ago period, CoStar reported 17 cents a share on $781 million in revenue. CoStar reports earnings after the market closes on Tuesday.
Investors have a lot on their minds heading into earnings. The list of the stock's recent headwinds include "the longer ramp in Homes.com profitability, re-segmentation of the business (reduced disclosure), and skepticism about marketplace businesses in an AI world," the BMO analysts wrote in the report, reiterating the stock's Market Perform rating and reducing its price target to $31 from $44.
"Most recently, additional pressure caused by the company returning to M&A, higher interest rates potentially putting pressure on CRE activity and housing origination volumes, and the CFO's resignation," they added.
Higher mortgage rates have kept home sales at a relatively low level. The macroeconomic environment warrants near-term caution, Jefferies analyst Surinder Thind wrote in a July 22 note lowering CoStar's price target to $45 from $55 but maintaining the stock's Buy rating.
"Ultimately, we view the longer term outlook of the company favorably," Thind wrote. "But note near-term headwinds may take time to dissipate."
Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 28, 2026 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT)
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