Northern Trust Corp Acquires 46,041 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR)

Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR - Free Report) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,366,918 shares of the specialty retailer's stock after purchasing an additional 46,041 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.28% of OPENLANE worth $27,120,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in OPENLANE in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Quarry LP grew its position in OPENLANE by 414.6% in the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,182 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,758 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in OPENLANE by 435.9% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 2,062 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in OPENLANE during the fourth quarter valued at about $68,000. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its position in OPENLANE by 51.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,314 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,798 shares in the last quarter. 99.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP James P. Coyle sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.72, for a total transaction of $152,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 36,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $793,018.92. This represents a 16.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.51% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on KAR shares. StockNews.com upgraded OPENLANE from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Barrington Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of OPENLANE in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Stephens upgraded shares of OPENLANE from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of OPENLANE from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a report on Thursday, March 27th.

OPENLANE Stock Performance

KAR stock traded up $0.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $22.36. 75,365 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 802,518. The company has a 50-day moving average of $19.63 and a 200-day moving average of $19.95. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.44 and a 1 year high of $22.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a PE ratio of 42.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.32.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The specialty retailer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.07. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 6.27%. The firm had revenue of $460.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $445.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current year.

OPENLANE 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.