Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 17,935 Shares of Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in Cars.com Inc. (NYSE:CARS) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 303,737 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,935 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.46% of Cars.com worth $5,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CARS. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 120.1% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,723,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,519,000 after buying an additional 940,376 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 94.2% during the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 425,643 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,313,000 after buying an additional 206,415 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 50.3% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 615,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,573,000 after buying an additional 205,871 shares during the period. Greenvale Capital LLP increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Greenvale Capital LLP now owns 4,628,403 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,801,000 after buying an additional 90,222 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cars.com by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,216,683 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,983,000 after buying an additional 81,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CARS. B. Riley reduced their target price on Cars.com from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Cars.com from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Cars.com from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of Cars.com in a research note on Friday, August 23rd.

Cars.com Price Performance

Shares of CARS stock opened at $17.33 on Tuesday. Cars.com Inc. has a twelve month low of $14.82 and a twelve month high of $21.24. The stock has a market cap of $1.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.04 and a beta of 2.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $18.45 and its 200 day moving average is $18.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.06). Cars.com had a return on equity of 6.70% and a net margin of 3.51%. The company had revenue of $178.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.51 million. Research analysts expect that Cars.com Inc. will post 1.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cars.com

In other news, CEO Thomas Alex Vetter sold 17,674 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.23, for a total value of $339,871.02. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 598,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,517,500.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.12% of the company’s stock.

Cars.com Company Profile

Cars.com Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a digital automotive marketplace that connects local car dealers to consumers in the United States. The company offers a suite of digital solutions that creates connections between individuals researching cars or looking to purchase a car with car dealerships and automotive original equipment manufacturers.