Brown Advisory Inc. Purchases 323,696 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR - Free Report) by 14.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,538,477 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after buying an additional 323,696 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned about 2.37% of OPENLANE worth $48,942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in KAR. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new position in OPENLANE during the fourth quarter valued at $15,793,000. TFJ Management LLC purchased a new position in OPENLANE during the fourth quarter valued at $14,465,000. Advisory Research Inc. purchased a new position in OPENLANE during the fourth quarter valued at $9,761,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of OPENLANE by 148.1% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 805,461 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $15,980,000 after acquiring an additional 480,804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of OPENLANE during the fourth quarter valued at $7,007,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.76% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on KAR. Wall Street Zen upgraded OPENLANE from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded 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. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on OPENLANE from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP James P. Coyle sold 7,000 shares of OPENLANE stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.72, for a total value of $152,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 36,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $793,018.92. This trade represents a 16.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.32% of the company's stock.

OPENLANE Price Performance

NYSE KAR traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $25.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 787,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 748,659. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.44 and a 12 month high of $25.86. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $22.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.99. The company has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.41.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.07. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 7.15%. The company had revenue of $460.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. OPENLANE's revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.