In the Sweet Spot · · CoStar Group (CSGP) · Real Estate

CoStar Group: Insider Buying, a Closed Acquisition, and a Sweet-Spot PAR

CoStar Group just closed its Zonda acquisition and saw a CEO insider purchase, while its PAR of 15.9% sits inside our sweet spot even though shares remain far below their 52-week high.

CoStar Group (CSGP) was Manifest Investing's In the Sweet Spot daily stock pick for August 24, 2026. At the time of the pick, CoStar Group carried a quality percentile of 96 and a projected annual return (PAR) of 15.9% against a MIPAR of 9.0%, placing it inside the sweet spot of 14.0% to 19.0%.

Key metrics at the time of the pick

Quality percentile
96
Projected annual return (PAR)
15.9%
MIPAR (median PAR of coverage)
9.0%
PROVE
18.6%
Core score (of 300)
223
Financial strength (of 100)
89
EPS stability (of 100)
39.1
Sales growth forecast
13.2%
P/E ratio
20.4
Price at pick
$32.26
52-week low
$25.89
52-week high
$91.89
Above 52-week low
24.6%
Below 52-week high
64.9%
Dividend yield
0.0%
Projected yield
0.0%
In the sweet spot
Yes
Triple play
No

Why CoStar Group (CSGP) stands out today

CoStar Group trades at $32.26, which is 64.9% below its 52-week high of $91.89 and only 24.6% above its 52-week low of $25.89. That combination of a still-depressed price and a projected annual return (PAR) of 15.9% is exactly the relationship our methodology expects: when a price falls (or simply stays well off its highs) while the underlying growth and profitability outlook holds up, PAR rises. At 15.9%, CSGP’s PAR sits inside our sweet spot, the band running from MIPAR (currently 9.0%, the median projected return across all stocks we follow) plus 5 to plus 10 percentage points, or 14.0% to 19.0%. That is a real, if modest, distinction: not every stock we look at clears that bar.

Quality backs up the story. CoStar ranks at the 95.6 percentile on our quality scale, which measures financial strength, earnings stability, and relative sales growth and profitability against the rest of the database we track (a ranking above 80 is considered excellent). Financial strength itself checks in at 88.7 out of 100, comfortably in the “strong” range. The one softer spot is EPS predictability at 39.1 out of 100, a reminder that CoStar’s earnings path, while improving, hasn’t been as smooth historically as some of its high-quality peers. Sum quality, financial strength, and EPS predictability together and you get a core score of 223 (out of a 0-300 scale) — just under the 225 threshold we associate with a “core holding” candidate, worth noting rather than ignoring.

What’s new today

CoStar completed its acquisition of Zonda on August 21, extending its data and analytics footprint into new-home construction, per the company’s own announcement. Days earlier, CEO Andrew Florance purchased shares — an insider buy that is the kind of signal worth noting alongside the fundamentals rather than in place of them.

The next earnings report is scheduled for October 27, 2026, giving investors a defined near-term checkpoint against the company’s own targets.

What our review of recent earnings calls adds

Our AI review of CoStar’s earnings calls through Q2 2026 found a business in the middle of a genuine profitability inflection, arriving ahead of the timeline management had previously described, alongside a real and unresolved growth question. On the positive side, the review flagged that CoStar’s residential segment (home to Homes.com) turned profitable for the first time, and that management held full-year profitability guidance steady even after trimming full-year revenue guidance, a pattern the review characterized as genuine cost discipline rather than financial engineering. It also pointed to accelerating bookings within CoStar’s core commercial suite and a widening competitive opening against a key rival in the rental-listings market.

On the other side, the review surfaced a clear caution flag: net new bookings, a leading indicator for future subscription revenue, were down roughly a quarter year-over-year even as they stabilized sequentially, and full-year revenue guidance was cut mid-year. Whether the newer Homes.com advertising initiatives and the maturing sales organization translate that stabilization into renewed bookings growth over the next couple of quarters is, per the review, the central open question for the story from here.

Keeping perspective

As always, a PAR at the high end of a sweet spot, or a wide gap between current price and 52-week high, is a starting point for further study, not a conclusion. The bookings deceleration our earnings-call review flagged deserves its own follow-up before drawing any conclusions about the pace of the turnaround.

Sources

CoStar Group has also been the In the Sweet Spot pick on: July 21, 2026.

About In the Sweet Spot

Manifest Investing's daily stock pick: one high-quality company whose projected annual return (PAR) sits in the sweet spot above the market median (MIPAR). Each pick pairs Manifest Investing's quality percentile with its projected annual return (PAR); the sweet spot runs from MIPAR + 5 to MIPAR + 10 percentage points. Browse every pick in the archive.

In the Sweet Spot is educational and is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Figures reflect Manifest Investing's methodology as of the pick date.