Nicholas Company Inc. Sells 31,205 Shares of OPENLANE, Inc. $KAR

Nicholas Company Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of OPENLANE, Inc. (NYSE:KAR) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 403,530 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 31,205 shares during the period. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in OPENLANE were worth $9,866,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in OPENLANE during the second quarter valued at approximately $687,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in OPENLANE by 41.6% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 88,749 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $2,170,000 after purchasing an additional 26,093 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC grew its stake in shares of OPENLANE by 524,766.7% in the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 15,746 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $385,000 after acquiring an additional 15,743 shares during the last quarter. Praxis Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of OPENLANE in the second quarter worth $206,000. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in OPENLANE by 2.0% during the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 23,605 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.76% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on KAR. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of OPENLANE from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Stephens lifted their price target on OPENLANE from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Barrington Research lifted their price target on OPENLANE from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on OPENLANE from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Zacks Research cut OPENLANE from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

Insider Activity

In other OPENLANE news, EVP Charles S. Coleman sold 59,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.97, for a total transaction of $1,658,313.33. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 53,474 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,495,667.78. The trade was a 52.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP James P. Coyle sold 194,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.94, for a total value of $5,436,425.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 36,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,616.94. This represents a 84.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.51% of the company’s stock.

OPENLANE Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:KAR opened at $26.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.33. OPENLANE, Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.79 and a 1-year high of $30.93. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $27.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.06.

OPENLANE (NYSE:KAR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The specialty retailer reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $481.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.26 million. OPENLANE had a return on equity of 11.65% and a net margin of 8.18%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that OPENLANE, Inc. will post 0.95 EPS for the current 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.