CoStar Group, Inc. (CSGP) — Company Research

Last Updated: 7 May 2026

CoStar Group is the dominant data and online-marketplace operator for U.S. commercial real estate, sitting on a 35-year-old proprietary database that powers the CoStar subscription platform alongside LoopNet, Apartments.com, Homes.com, Land.com, BizBuySell, Ten-X, Matterport and the recently acquired Domain (Australia) and OnTheMarket (U.K.). FY2025 was a paradox: revenue grew 18.7% to $3.247 billion while reported operating income flipped from a $5 million profit in FY2024 to a $72 million loss, diluted EPS collapsed from $0.34 to $0.02, and free cash flow fell to $41 million — the year's investment in Homes.com and the Matterport and Domain integrations weighed heavily on margins. By the time of the Q1 FY2026 print on 28 April 2026 the activist campaign by Third Point had ended, the company had reaffirmed and raised 2026 guidance, and CEO Andy Florance had bought $2.5 million of shares in the open market. The stock, however, was trading near 52-week lows. This research note pulls together what CoStar Group actually does, how the segments split, the cash flow and balance sheet, and what is on the calendar — all from the company's own filings and disclosures, with no analyst opinions or ratings included.

1. Company Snapshot

Name	CoStar Group, Inc.
Ticker	CSGP (Nasdaq)
Sector / Industry	Real Estate / Real Estate Services
Market cap	$14.24 billion
Enterprise value	$13.89 billion
Latest fiscal-year revenue	$3.247 billion (FY2025, ended 31 December 2025)
Employees	8,441 (as of 31 January 2026)
CEO	Andrew C. (Andy) Florance — founder
Headquarters	1201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia
Website	costargroup.com
Price (intraday 7 May 2026)	$34.88
52-week range	$33.32 – $97.43

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull case

• Revenue grew 18.7% in FY2025 to $3.247 billion, the latest in a multi-year run of double-digit annual revenue growth (per the recent_news entry, Simply Wall St., 1 May 2026, Q1 2026 marked the 60th straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth), with both segments contributing — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): Commercial Real Estate revenue rose 18% to $1,787 million and Residential Real Estate revenue rose 20% to $1,460 million.
• The subscription business is sticky and high-margin — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): subscription-based services generated approximately 93% of total revenue in 2025, the trailing-12-month contract renewal rate was approximately 89%, and annualised net new bookings were approximately $308 million in 2025 versus $250 million in 2024.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): Commercial Real Estate segment Adjusted EBITDA reached $672 million in 2025 (up $70 million year-over-year) and the Residential segment loss narrowed by $131 million to a $230 million Adjusted EBITDA loss as Homes.com marketing spend stabilised — the segment-level operating leverage is now visible.
• Q1 FY2026 quarterly results showed sequential margin progress: revenue of $897 million, free cash flow of $98 million and operating cash flow of $152 million, with operating income returning to a (small) positive of $3 million versus a $43 million loss in Q1 FY2025.
• Capital return is stepping up — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): the prior $500 million share repurchase program was completed in December 2025 (7.1 million shares retired) and a new $1.5 billion repurchase program was approved by the board in December 2025, with management currently expecting approximately $700 million of repurchases during 2026 (a $500 million accelerated share repurchase in Q1 2026 followed by approximately $200 million of open-market repurchases over the remainder of the year).
• The activist overhang has cleared — on 29 April 2026 The Real Deal reported that Third Point had liquidated its entire stake and ended its activist campaign against the company; on 1 May 2026 founder/CEO Andy Florance disclosed an open-market purchase of an additional approximately $2.5 million of shares.

Bear case

• GAAP operating income fell from a $5 million profit in FY2024 to a $72 million loss in FY2025; net income collapsed from $139 million to $7 million and diluted EPS fell from $0.34 to $0.02 — a 94% decline.
• Free cash flow was just $41 million in FY2025 against a market cap of $14.24 billion, an FCF yield of 0.29%; capital expenditure of $389 million plus the $500 million stock buyback consumed cash on hand, which fell from $4.681 billion at the end of FY2024 to $1.633 billion at the end of FY2025.
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): customer-base amortisation expense increased 168% to $118 million in 2025 (from $44 million in 2024) on the Visual Lease, Matterport and Domain acquisitions, and the effective tax rate jumped to 77% from 34% on lower U.S. income; both will weigh on near-term GAAP margins until acquired-intangible amortisation rolls off.
• The Residential segment is still loss-making at the Adjusted EBITDA level — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): Residential Real Estate posted a $230 million Adjusted EBITDA loss in 2025 (improved from a $361 million loss in 2024 but still substantial).
• Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): the trailing-12-month proportion of revenue from subscription contracts with a term of at least one year fell from 81% to 76% in 2025, primarily because Domain and Matterport sell on a transactional basis — durability of revenue is mechanically lower than it used to be.
• The shares are at the bottom of a wide trading range — the 52-week range is $33.32 to $97.43 and the current price of $34.88 sits near the low; trailing P/E on FY2025 EPS of $0.02 is mathematically distorted (1,744× on the report's calculation; 498× on the alternative calculation in the source data).

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

CoStar Group sells real-estate data, online marketplaces and 3D digital-twin technology. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): the company describes itself as "a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, analytics, and 3D digital twin technology in the property markets" and operates marketplaces in the U.S., Australia, Europe, Canada and Asia-Pacific. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): during the fourth quarter of 2025 the company changed its segment composition from geography-based to product-portfolio-based, and now reports two segments — Commercial Real Estate and Residential Real Estate.

Revenue mix (FY2025) — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26):

• CoStar (subscription platform) — 39% of revenue ($1,259 million). Subscription access to property, leasing, sales, tenant, owner and market data; STR hospitality benchmarking; CoStar Real Estate Manager and Visual Lease lease-administration SaaS; debt-solutions tools for lenders.
• LoopNet (commercial marketplace) — 10% of revenue ($312 million). Subscription-based listing and advertising packages for commercial property owners, landlords and brokers; with the August 2025 Domain Acquisition, also offers commercial real estate listings in Australia.
• Other Commercial Real Estate — 7% of revenue ($216 million). Matterport (3D digital twins, capture services and cameras), BizBuySell (operating-business marketplace) and Ten-X (commercial real estate auction).
• Residential Real Estate — 45% of revenue ($1,460 million). Apartments.com (subscription apartment marketing), Homes.com (your-listing-your-lead agent advertising, with Homes AI conversational search), Land.com (rural property), Domain (Australia) and OnTheMarket (U.K.).

FY2025 $3.25bn Residential — 45% CoStar — 39% LoopNet — 10% Other CRE — 7%

Combining the three commercial product lines, the Commercial Real Estate segment generated $1,787 million of revenue in FY2025 (55% of the total) and the Residential Real Estate segment generated $1,460 million (45%).

Geographic and customer footprint — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): as of 31 January 2026 the company employed 6,602 U.S.-based employees (~78% of headcount), 1,155 in Asia and Oceania, 608 in Europe, 72 in Canada and 4 in Latin America, totalling 8,441 across 20 countries. Customer bases include sales/leasing brokers, property and asset managers, REITs, insurers, government agencies, mortgage and commercial bankers, real-estate developers, retailers and property owners; Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): "We are not presently dependent upon, and we do not anticipate becoming dependent upon, any one customer or a small number of customers."

4. The Business Model

The economics are subscription-driven. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): subscription-based services generated approximately 93% of FY2025 revenue (96% in 2024 and 95% in 2023), most contracts have a minimum term of one year and renew automatically, the trailing-12-month contract renewal rate was approximately 89% (89% in 2024, 90% in 2023), and the cancellation rate was approximately 11% (11% in 2024, 10% in 2023). The remaining ~7% of revenue is transactional — premium listings on Domain and Homes.com, Matterport capture services, Matterport hardware sales, and Ten-X commercial-auction fees.

Pricing. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): contract rates depend on number of sites, number of users, organisation size, customer's business focus, geographic location, number of properties reported on or analysed, number of digital twins hosted and prominence/placement of advertised listings; subscription customers generally pay monthly. Most CoStar (the platform) revenue growth in 2025 came from a combination of more subscribers and inflation-based price increases — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): CoStar revenue rose 9% with $35 million from the Visual Lease Acquisition; LoopNet rose 11% on more paid listings and higher average price per listing; Other CRE rose 181% almost entirely on $147 million from Matterport (the acquisition completed in February 2025, partially offset by lower auction revenue).

Cost structure (FY2025) — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): cost of revenue was 21% of revenue, with operating expenses split selling and marketing 48% of revenue ($1,560 million), software development 13% ($406 million), general and administrative 17% ($549 million) and customer-base amortisation 4% ($118 million). Reported gross margin was 79% (the small step down from 80% in 2024 reflected higher amortisation of acquired technology and trade names from Matterport and Domain). The dominant operating expense — selling and marketing — fell as a percentage of revenue from 50% in 2024 to 48% in 2025; the company's source data reports this as the first sign of operating-leverage payoff after the heavy 2024 launch of Homes.com.

The moat. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): CoStar Group has spent more than 35 years building and acquiring databases of real estate information, supports the largest commercial real estate research department in the industry, and competes primarily on quality and depth of the underlying database, ease of use, breadth of geographic coverage, and "perception that the service offered is the industry standard". Patents matter at the margin (the company holds over 100 issued patents, 96 in the U.S., concentrated in interface features and the Matterport 3D capture stack — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26)) but the franchise's protection is the database itself, the sales force that maintains it, and the cross-selling motion to existing subscribers.

Government incentives and regulatory credits. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): the company has negotiated tax incentives with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Richmond related to the campus expansion in Richmond, Virginia, including market-based income apportionment and partial property-tax reimbursements; the value of these incentives is estimated to be in the range of $275 million to $285 million for tax years 2023 to 2032, conditional upon meeting job-creation and capital-expenditure targets through 2029. These are tax timing/abatement items rather than a revenue stream — CoStar Group's revenue is fundamentally fee-for-service subscription pricing.

Acquisition cadence. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): the company acquired Visual Lease in November 2024, Matterport in February 2025 and Domain in August 2025; integration is the dominant operating-margin story for 2026.

5. Financial Health

Five-year P&L, balance sheet and cash flow trend (USD millions, all from the report's source data unless noted)

Fiscal year	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024	FY2025
Revenue	n/a	$2,182	$2,455	$2,736	$3,247
Gross profit	n/a	$1,768	$1,964	$2,178	$2,561
Operating income	$432	$451	$282	$5	$(72)
Net income	n/a	$370	$375	$139	$7
EPS (diluted)	n/a	$0.93	$0.92	$0.34	$0.02
Operating cash flow	n/a	$479	$490	$393	$430
Capex	n/a	$(94)	$(143)	$(638)	$(389)
Free cash flow	n/a	$385	$347	$(245)	$41
Stock buybacks	$(33)	n/a	$0	$0	$(500)
Dividends paid	—	—	—	—	—
Diluted share count (mn)	n/a	397.8	406.9	407.8	420.7
Total debt	n/a	$1,106	$1,110	$1,151	$1,184
Cash & equivalents	n/a	$4,968	$5,216	$4,681	$1,633
Total equity	n/a	$6,870	$7,339	$7,553	$8,334

The trend is the inverse of the rail names elsewhere in this research section: revenue has stepped up every year (FY2022 $2.18 billion → FY2025 $3.25 billion, +49% over three years), but operating income compressed every year, going from $451 million in FY2022 to a $72 million loss in FY2025. The decline reflected three things: (a) the launch of the Homes.com paid-membership product in February 2024 with a heavy multi-channel marketing campaign that ran through 2024 and into 2025; (b) the Matterport acquisition in February 2025, which added subscription revenue but also a sizable hardware/services cost base and a $147 million revenue contribution against a much larger associated cost base; and (c) the August 2025 Domain acquisition, which also added customer-base amortisation. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): the year-end cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash balance was $1.7 billion (down from $4.7 billion at the end of 2024), with $2.8 billion of cash used in investing activities (primarily the Matterport and Domain acquisitions) and $559 million of cash used in financing activities (principally the $500 million repurchase under the prior repurchase program).

Quarterly trend (last five quarters) (USD millions; gross margin computed from gross profit and revenue)

Quarter end	Revenue	Gross profit	Gross margin	Operating income	Net income	EPS (diluted)	Free cash flow
Q1 FY2025 (31 Mar 2025)	$732.0	$579.0	79.1%	$(43.0)	$(15.0)	$(0.04)	$(27.0)
Q2 FY2025 (30 Jun 2025)	$781.3	$613.5	78.5%	$(27.2)	$6.2	$0.01	$(4.0)
Q3 FY2025 (30 Sep 2025)	$833.6	$661.4	79.3%	$(51.1)	$(30.9)	$(0.07)	$(23.6)
Q4 FY2025 (31 Dec 2025)	$899.9	$707.2	78.6%	$49.1	$46.5	$0.11	$95.6
Q1 FY2026 (31 Mar 2026)	$897.0	$701.0	78.1%	$3.0	$3.0	$0.01	$98.0

$732

$781

$834

$900

$897

Q1 25 Q2 25 Q3 25 Q4 25 Q1 26 Revenue ($m) Gross Margin (%) Revenue Gross Margin

Q1 FY2026 quarterly revenue of $897 million was up about 22.5% on Q1 FY2025's $732 million; the report's source recent_news[] summarises Q1 results as a 23% revenue increase with adjusted EBITDA of $132 million, double the year-earlier level. Operating income and net income are barely positive on a GAAP basis, but free cash flow of $98 million in Q1 FY2026 is a meaningful turn from the negative cash generation seen through most of FY2025.

Capital structure and liquidity — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): year-end cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash were $1.7 billion; outstanding senior notes were $1.0 billion principal due 15 July 2030, with future interest payments of $140 million (including $28 million payable within 12 months); fixed operating-lease payment obligations totalled $161 million ($29 million within 12 months) and finance-lease obligations $12 million ($6 million within 12 months); purchase obligations totalled $205 million ($115 million within 12 months); and the company is obligated to spend an additional $155 million on the Richmond, Virginia campus expansion (which broke ground in November 2022 and is expected to be substantially complete in the first half of 2026). Total debt at year-end 2025 was $1.184 billion against total equity of $8.334 billion, a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, and the current ratio was 2.84.

6. Valuation & Market Data

All figures as of intraday 7 May 2026 unless dated otherwise.

Metric	Value
Price	$34.88
Previous close	$34.07
Day range	$33.94 – $35.18
52-week high	$97.43
52-week low	$33.32
Market cap	$14.24 billion
Enterprise value	$13.89 billion
Shares outstanding	408.4 million
Float	403.0 million
Beta (5Y monthly)	0.75
Trailing P/E (price ÷ FY2025 diluted EPS)	1,744× (mathematically distorted by $0.02 EPS)
Trailing P/E (yfinance / TTM basis)	498×
Forward P/E (yfinance)	19.62×
P/S (trailing)	4.39×
P/B	1.71×
EV / Revenue	4.28×
EV / Operating income (proxy)	negative — FY2025 operating income was a $72m loss
FCF yield	0.29%
Dividend yield	none — CoStar Group does not pay a dividend
Today's volume	2.36 million
10-day average volume	7.14 million
Short interest (shares short, % of float, days to cover)	not disclosed in this report's source data
Put/call ratio	not disclosed in this report's source data

The headline P/E ratios are mathematically uninformative because GAAP diluted EPS for FY2025 was just $0.02 — the stock is not realistically valued on trailing GAAP earnings. The practical multiples are price-to-sales (4.4×), EV/revenue (4.3×) and forward P/E (19.6× on yfinance's forward estimate). The forward multiple implies a recovery in earnings power as Homes.com marketing and Matterport/Domain integration costs roll off; the report does not include a comparable peer multiple.

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

The 2026 priorities the company has set out for itself are concrete and product-led. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26):

• Integration of the residential platforms internationally. Deploy Homes.com in Australia and the U.K. through the Domain and OnTheMarket integrations, leverage rentals marketing and lead generation across Apartments.com and Homes.com, scale Homes.com via depth advertising and a new homes-builder program, and develop new tools for residential agents and brokers.
• AI-enabled features across the portfolio. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): "We plan to extend the revolutionary capability of Homes AI across the Company's portfolio of leading platforms, including Apartments.com, CoStar, LoopNet, Land.com and BizBuySell.com — ushering in a new era of intelligent, conversational real estate discovery." Homes AI draws from the company's property data, Matterport 3D digital twins, images, proprietary school data, neighborhood insights and market intelligence.
• CoStar platform expansion. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): plans to add new homes data, valuation capabilities, lease benchmarking data and debt benchmarking — designed to drive new subscribers and additional usage on the same platform.
• International expansion of LoopNet and CoStar. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): LoopNet branded advertising products were launched in Spain and France in 2025, with continuing footprint expansion. The company plans to launch LoopNet into Australia (using the Domain platform) and to launch CoStar in France and Australia.
• Internal AI for research and product development. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): AI is being used internally to improve data collection, data generation and data quality and to drive research efficiencies and the pace of product development.
• Richmond, Virginia campus expansion. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): broke ground November 2022, expected to be substantially completed in the first half of 2026, with $155 million of remaining contractual spend at year-end 2025 to be funded from cash on hand.

Pipeline of acquisitions completed in the last 12 months — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): Visual Lease (lease-administration SaaS, November 2024), Matterport (3D digital twin technology, February 2025) and Domain (Australia residential and commercial marketplace, August 2025). The company describes 2026 as primarily an integration year for these three transactions.

The company does not disclose dedicated AI-infrastructure investments, supercomputers or custom silicon programmes; AI is described as a horizontal capability deployed across products and operations rather than as a separate infrastructure platform.

8. Competitive Landscape

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): the market for real-estate-focused online marketplaces, information and analytics is "competitive, dynamic, and is constantly evolving as a result of technological advancements, customer preferences, and new products and offerings". CoStar Group competes on the basis of database depth, lead quality, ease of use, intuitive interface, timeliness, geographic coverage, completeness and accuracy of content, client service, the perception of being the industry standard, price, marketing effectiveness, proprietary methodologies, brand awareness, capital resources, the quality and size of authenticated platform visitors and the use of AI both in products and internal operations.

The 10-K does not disclose specific competitor market-share percentages, and the source data does not include named competitor share figures, so the competitor-share visualisation is omitted from this note. The segments compete with different sets of incumbents:

Segment	Where CoStar Group competes	Type of competitor
Commercial Real Estate (CoStar, LoopNet)	Subscription data and analytics; commercial property listing marketplaces	Other commercial-property data providers, brokerage-firm in-house tools, and emerging AI-native real-estate data startups
Apartments.com	Multifamily rental marketing and lead generation	Other rental marketplaces and listing aggregators
Homes.com	For-sale residential real-estate advertising and search	Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Many of our competitors, especially with respect to those that compete with our businesses in our Residential Real Estate segment, are incumbent players that may have greater name recognition, resources, and increased adoption of AI services."
Land.com	Rural land marketplace	Other rural-property and farm/ranch marketplaces
Matterport	3D digital-twin capture and hosting	Other 3D capture / virtual-tour providers
Ten-X	Commercial real-estate auction	Other commercial-property auction platforms
BizBuySell	Operating-business and franchise marketplace	Other small-business-for-sale listing sites
Domain (AU), OnTheMarket (UK)	Residential listings in Australia and the U.K.	Domestic incumbent residential portals in each market

Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Our competitors may be able to undertake more effective marketing campaigns, obtain more data, adopt more aggressive pricing policies … or may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies, including the integration of generative AI Technologies … rapid advancement of generative AI Technologies may reduce the barrier to entry for new competitors." The Residential segment's direct cost-base — large-scale brand campaigns, agent acquisition, and Homes.com lead-flow infrastructure — is the most exposed to competitive escalation.

Specific market-share percentages by competitor are not disclosed in this report's source data, so the competitor-share visualisation is omitted.

9. Leadership and Ownership

Founder/CEO — Andrew C. (Andy) Florance founded CoStar Group in 1986 and remains Chief Executive Officer. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "If we were to lose the services of Mr. Florance for any reason, there could be a material adverse impact on our operations." On 1 May 2026, Florance disclosed an open-market purchase of 71,430 shares for $2,514,208 (an implied price of approximately $35.20 per share); on 27 February 2026 he separately filed for 55,720 shares with a reported value of $2,480,654.

Top institutional holders (as of 31 December 2025 unless otherwise noted)

Holder	Shares	% of shares	Reported value
Vanguard Group Inc.	70,108,999	17.17%	$2.45 billion
BlackRock, Inc.	33,970,626	8.32%	$1.18 billion
BAMCO Inc. (Baron Capital)	19,498,099	4.77%	$680 million
State Street Corporation	18,632,352	4.56%	$650 million
Principal Financial Group, Inc. (31 Mar 2026)	17,696,192	4.33%	$617 million
Baillie Gifford & Co	12,933,185	3.17%	$451 million
Geode Capital Management, LLC	12,182,167	2.98%	$425 million
Capital International Investors	10,842,010	2.66%	$378 million
Akre Capital Management, LLC	9,617,805	2.36%	$335 million
Janus Henderson Group PLC	7,473,380	1.83%	$261 million

The top three index-driven holders (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street) collectively held about 30.0% of shares outstanding at 31 December 2025 — a higher concentration than is typical for a large-cap, reflecting CoStar Group's S&P 500 inclusion and the relatively low free-float concentration among non-index investors. Two long-only fundamental holders are visible in the top ten: BAMCO (Baron Capital) and Akre Capital — both have publicly identified themselves as concentrated CoStar Group holders for many years. Per the report's source recent_news[] (29 April 2026), activist investor Third Point liquidated its entire stake during Q1 2026, ending its activist campaign against the company.

Recent insider filings (Form 4 / Form 5)

Date	Insider	Position	Shares	Reported value (USD)
2026-05-01	Florance, Andrew Colden	Chief Executive Officer	71,430	$2,514,208
2026-03-10	Lown, Christian M.	Chief Financial Officer	12,268	—
2026-03-10	Boxer, Gene	General Counsel	21,920	—
2026-03-10	Desmarais, Michael J.	Officer	17,676	—
2026-03-10	Florance, Andrew Colden	Chief Executive Officer	124,162	—
2026-03-10	Cann, Cynthia Cammett	Officer	4,374	—
2026-03-06	Sams, Louise S.	Director	1,000	$48,360
2026-03-02	Saint, Frederick G.	Officer	20,000	$906,600
2026-03-02	Glaser, Rachel C.	Director	1,000	$44,940
2026-02-27	Florance, Andrew Colden	Chief Executive Officer	55,720	$2,480,654

The cluster of 10 March 2026 filings with no reported transaction value — across the CFO, General Counsel, two officers and the CEO — is consistent with annual equity-award vesting or RSU/PSU release rather than open-market activity. The report's source data does not record a buy/sell direction or 10b5-1 plan flag for any of these filings, so the article cannot characterise them more precisely. The 1 May 2026 CEO line (71,430 shares for $2,514,208, an implied ~$35.20 per share) is publicly characterised in the report's source recent_news[] (Investing.com, 4 May 2026) as an open-market purchase. The 2 March 2026 filings by an officer (20,000 shares at an implied ~$45.33) and a director (1,000 shares at $44.94) sit at price points well above the current market, which would be consistent with sales rather than purchases, but the source data does not flag direction explicitly.

Capital return — Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): in February 2025 the Board approved a $500 million share-repurchase program (the Prior Program), which was completed in December 2025 with the repurchase of 7.1 million CoStar Group shares for an aggregate cost of $500 million. In December 2025 the Board approved a new $1.5 billion share-repurchase program (no time limit). Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): "We currently expect to repurchase approximately $700 million of CoStar Group Shares during 2026, including a planned $500 million accelerated share repurchase of CoStar Group Shares to be executed in the first quarter of 2026, followed by approximately $200 million of additional open-market repurchases during the remainder of the year." The company does not pay a dividend.

10. Risks and Challenges

CoStar Group's own Item 1A Risk Factors run to over 100,000 characters; the principal categories below are summarised from that section.

• Subscriber growth and retention. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "If we are unable to attract and retain new clients, particularly subscribers to our information, analytics, and online marketplace services, our revenue and financial position will be adversely affected." Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): the trailing-12-month renewal rate was approximately 89% — a small change in renewal rate compounds quickly across the subscription base.
• Competition, including AI-native challengers. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Many of our competitors, especially with respect to those that compete with our businesses in our Residential Real Estate segment, are incumbent players that may have greater name recognition, resources, and increased adoption of AI services" and "rapid advancement of generative AI Technologies may reduce the barrier to entry for new competitors."
• Real-estate cyclicality. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "A downturn in the real estate market, including as a result of increased interest rates or a decline in leasing activity and absorption rates may affect our ability to generate revenue and may lead to more cancellations by our current or future customers."
• New-product execution — Homes.com. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant costs to develop and market Homes.com. If we are unable to attract and retain agent subscribers and consumers, we may not be able to execute our growth plans or recognize a return on the investments we have made into Homes.com."
• Acquisition integration. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): integration risk is explicitly flagged in respect of the Matterport Acquisition and the Domain Acquisition; if the company "is unable to successfully identify, finance, integrate, and/or manage costs related to acquisitions, our business operations and financial position could be adversely affected."
• Matterport hardware supply chain. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "If third-party suppliers upon which Matterport relies are not able to fulfill its needs, Matterport's ability to timely and cost effectively bring its hardware products to market could be affected."
• Cyber and IT availability. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition." The company's database and online platforms are the core revenue-generating asset.
• Richmond campus build cost. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "The significant costs associated with building our campus in Richmond, Virginia, have impacted and will continue to impact our financial condition and results of operations." Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): an additional $155 million of contractual spend remains.
• Indebtedness. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Our significant indebtedness could decrease our flexibility and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations." Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26): outstanding senior notes were $1.0 billion principal due 15 July 2030.
• International expansion and currency. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "We are expanding our operations outside of the United States, which may subject us to increased business, regulatory, and economic risks" and the company is exposed to foreign-currency volatility.
• Privacy laws and litigation. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Our actual or perceived failure to comply with privacy laws and standards could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations" — relevant to U.S., EU and Australian operations alike.
• Discretionary capital return and no dividend. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): "Stock repurchases under our Stock Repurchase Program are discretionary, and we cannot guarantee that our Stock Repurchase Program will achieve the desired objectives." The company does not currently intend to pay dividends.
• Founder/CEO key-person risk. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1A, filed 2026-02-26): the loss of the services of Mr. Florance "could be a material adverse impact on our operations."
• Single-customer concentration. Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 1, filed 2026-02-26): the company is not currently dependent on any one customer or small number of customers — concentration risk is therefore low at the customer level, though sub-segment exposure (e.g., to large U.S. brokerage firms) is not separately disclosed.
• GAAP-margin pressure during integration. Customer-base amortisation rose to $118 million in FY2025 from $44 million in FY2024 (Per the FY2025 10-K (Item 7, filed 2026-02-26)) and will continue to weigh on GAAP operating income through 2026 as the Matterport, Domain and Visual Lease intangibles are amortised.

11. Recent Developments

The most recent items first; URLs are taken verbatim from the report's source recent_news[].

• 4 May 2026 — CoStar CEO boosts stake after activist exit and earnings beat (Investing.com). Shares rose 1.6% on Monday as CEO Andy Florance disclosed an open-market purchase of an additional approximately $2.5 million of shares; the article also references Third Point's exit and the Q1 FY2026 earnings beat. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/costar-ceo-boosts-stake-activist-193445514.html)
• 2 May 2026 — 1 Oversold Stock Ready to Bounce Back and 2 We Find Risky (StockStory). Industry coverage on stocks at new 52-week lows that includes CSGP. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/1-oversold-stock-ready-bounce-145255361.html)
• 1 May 2026 — A Look At CoStar Group (CSGP) Valuation After Raised 2026 Guidance And Homes.com Growth (Simply Wall St.). Coverage of the Q1 FY2026 result, referencing "60th straight quarter of double digit revenue growth", a doubling of adjusted EBITDA year-over-year and raised full-year 2026 revenue and EBITDA guidance, alongside a 30-day share-price decline of 14.2% and a year-to-date decline of 47.31%. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/look-costar-group-csgp-valuation-152027725.html)
• 30 April 2026 — DEF 14A proxy statement filed. SEC accession 0001193125-26-197205.
• 30 April 2026 — CoStar Group Inc. (CSGP): Bares Capital Is Bullish on This Stock (Insider Monkey). Coverage of Bares Capital's 13F portfolio holding, originally disclosed in Q2 2016. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/costar-group-inc-csgp-bares-142208015.html)
• 29 April 2026 — Q1 FY2026 10-Q filed. SEC accession 0001057352-26-000035.
• 29 April 2026 — CoStar CEO Andy Florance defends Homes.com after investor clash (The Real Deal). Florance described the company as "more focused" on its pursuits in the first earnings call following Third Point's exit and the liquidation of Third Point's entire stake; the article notes "the activist campaign over the last year did weigh heavily on Homes.com sales and potential par[tnerships]". (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/costar-ceo-andy-florance-defends-173757873.html)
• 29 April 2026 — CoStar Group Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Up Y/Y, Shares Fall (Zacks). Q1 earnings reported as topping estimates with EBITDA doubling and margins expanding, driven by marketplace growth and AI-driven engagement. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/costar-group-q1-earnings-beat-165400844.html)
• 29 April 2026 — Polen Capital Q1 commentary on what pressured CSGP (Insider Monkey). Polen Focus Growth Strategy first-quarter 2026 letter referenced. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/pressured-costar-group-csgp-q1-124222975.html)
• 29 April 2026 — CoStar Group, Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call Summary (Moby). Third-party summary of the Q1 FY2026 earnings call. (https://app.moby.co/home/research/tools/earningsCalendar/earnings-costar-group-inc-q1-2026-earnings-call-summary?utm_source=yahoo_finance&utm_medium=rss)
• 29 April 2026 — Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights (GuruFocus). 23% revenue increase and doubled adjusted EBITDA driven by performance across commercial and residential. (https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/costar-group-inc-csgp-q1-071005772.html)
• 28 April 2026 — Q1 FY2026 earnings 8-K filed. SEC accession 0001057352-26-000030.
• 28 April 2026 — CoStar (CSGP) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript (Motley Fool). Q1 FY2026 adjusted EBITDA of $132 million, doubled year-over-year and 26% above the midpoint of guidance, per management commentary on the call. (https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/04/28/costar-csgp-q1-2026-earnings-call-transcript/)
• 16 March 2026 — 8-K filed. SEC accession 0001057352-26-000024.
• 24 February 2026 — 8-K filed. SEC accession 0001057352-26-000012.
• 26 February 2026 — FY2025 10-K filed. SEC accession 0001057352-26-000020. This filing is the primary source for the management's-discussion-and-analysis citations in this note.

Industry coverage also referenced Bares Capital and Polen Capital commentary on the company; per ChartsView's research policy this note records the existence of those items but does not relay analyst ratings, price targets or third-party opinions.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

Event	Date
Most recent earnings (Q1 FY2026)	28 April 2026
Next earnings (Q2 FY2026, indicated)	21 July 2026
Most recent ex-dividend / dividend payment	not applicable — CoStar Group does not pay a dividend
Annual general meeting / product launch / regulatory dates	not disclosed in this report's source data

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Disclaimer: This research note is for general information only and does not constitute investment advice, an offer to buy or sell any security, or a personalised recommendation. Figures are drawn from CoStar Group's own filings and from the data sources listed at the top of the underlying dataset; while we have taken care to attribute numerical claims to their source, no guarantee of accuracy is given. Markets are volatile, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.

Last Updated: 3 May 2026

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) is the largest provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces in the world, and — following the August 2025 closing of the A$3.0 bn Domain Holdings takeover, the February 2025 close of the $1.6 bn Matterport acquisition and the December 2023 OnTheMarket UK deal — now also a global residential portal operator. The company reported its 60th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth on 28 April 2026: Q1 2026 revenue of $897 m (+23% YoY), adjusted EBITDA $132 m (doubled YoY) and adjusted EPS $0.23 vs guidance of $0.06–$0.08. Full-year 2025 revenue was $3.25 bn (+19%) with adjusted EBITDA $442 m (+83%) and net income of just $7 m, reflecting the heavy Homes.com investment cycle. Management raised 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $780–$820 m and adjusted EPS to $1.32–$1.39, while authorising a new $1.5 bn buyback (with $700 m of total 2026 cash repurchases planned, $505 m already executed in Q1 via an accelerated share repurchase). Critically, on 13–14 April 2026 Third Point disclosed it had liquidated its entire CoStar position and abandoned its activist board campaign, citing a thesis that "no longer holds true today". The next earnings release is Q2 2026 on or around late July 2026; CoStar pays no dividend. For live pricing see our live charts, the upcoming release schedule on the economic calendar, and discussion on the ChartsView forum.

1. Company Snapshot

Company	CoStar Group, Inc.
Ticker	NASDAQ: CSGP (S&P 500 constituent)
Sector / Industry	Real Estate Services / Information & Analytics / Online Marketplaces
HQ	1201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22209, USA (relocated to Arlington in 2025)
Founder, President & CEO	Andy (Andrew C.) Florance — founded the company in 1986 (incorporated 1987); CEO since founding
Independent Board Chair	Louise Sams (since April 2025; director since 2019)
CFO	Christian Lown
CTO	Frank A. Simuro
CIO	Jason Butler
Founded	1986 (Washington, D.C.); IPO 29 June 1998
Employees	~8,441 (per stockanalysis.com Q1 2026 snapshot; ~8,000+ post Domain integration; +500 from Matterport)
Fiscal year end	31 December
Share price (close 28 Apr 2026, post Q1)	$35.96
Recent quote (snapshot used in this report)	$34.54–$34.72 range, early May 2026
52-week range	$33.32 (intraday low, April 2026) — $97.43 (high, mid-2025)
Market cap (early May 2026)	~$14.2–$14.5 bn
Shares outstanding	~408–424 m (post $505 m Q1 ASR; post $1.5 bn new authorisation)
FY2025 revenue / adjusted EBITDA	$3.25 bn (+19%) / $442 m (+83%)
Q1 2026 revenue / adjusted EBITDA / adj EPS	$897 m (+23%) / $132 m (+100%) / $0.23
2026 guidance (revenue / adj EBITDA / adj EPS)	~$3.84 bn (+18%) / $780–$820 m / $1.32–$1.39
Buyback authorisation	$1.5 bn (announced January 2026); $505 m executed in Q1 via ASR; ~$700 m total 2026 cash outlay planned
Dividend	None — CoStar has never paid a cash dividend
Website	costargroup.com / investors.costargroup.com

2. Bull Case vs Bear Case

Bull Case	Bear Case
60 consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth; FY25 +19%; Q1 2026 +23%; 2026 guide +18%; medium-term target ~15% revenue CAGR 2025–2028 with adjusted EBITDA reaching $1.25 bn by 2028.	Trailing P/E reported in the 560–580 range (FY25 net income just $7 m on $3.25 bn revenue) reflects Homes.com investment burning ~$230 m of adjusted EBITDA in 2025 alone; profitability not expected at Homes.com until 2030 per management.
Activist overhang lifted: Third Point disclosed 13–14 April 2026 it had liquidated its entire CoStar position and dropped its planned proxy fight; D.E. Shaw also previously disengaged. CEO described the company as "more focused" on its Q1 call.	Stock down ~63% from 52-week high $97.43 to ~$34–$36; market cap halved from peak ~$40 bn to ~$14 bn; 1-year price change deeply negative as Homes.com ROI debate continues.
Homes.com gaining share: Q1 2026 revenue $26 m (+58%); paid agent subscriber count surged 205% YoY to 35,175; 100 m+ average monthly unique users; CoStar Group cited 187% YoY agent lead growth; management plans 1 May 2026 subscription price increase for new members ($3,400 list vs cited 11x ROI).	Zillow (Z) commands 235–243 m monthly UVs and ~2.6 bn quarterly visits versus Homes.com's ~108 m UVs — Zillow is still 2×+ scale; Realtor.com (Move/News Corp) and Redfin (now part of Rocket Companies post-2025 acquisition) compete aggressively at the listing-agent layer.
Capital return scaling: $1.5 bn buyback authorised January 2026; $505 m executed in Q1 2026 ASR; ~$700 m total cash repurchases planned for 2026 (vs $500 m completed in 2025).	CEO compensation controversy: Florance received ~$37.4 m total compensation in 2024; criticised by Third Point and D.E. Shaw as "exorbitant" relative to the share-price decline; corporate-jet usage cited.
Commercial segment is highly profitable: FY25 commercial revenue $1.79 bn (+18%) with $672 m adjusted EBITDA at >35% margin; Q1 2026 commercial adj. EBITDA $161 m at 34% margin.	Domain integration risk: A$3.0 bn enterprise value Australian portal closed only 27 August 2025; needs to be folded into the Homes.com / OnTheMarket / Apartments.com playbook with cost discipline; medium-term EBITDA targets implicitly assume Domain margin uplift.
AI / Matterport flywheel: Homes AI launched 17 February 2026 on Microsoft Azure OpenAI with Matterport 3D digital twins; Matterport added >14 m spaces and 50 bn sq ft of digitised property; CoStar plans to extend Homes AI to Apartments.com, LoopNet, Land.com and BizBuySell.	Move/News Corp dropped its trade-secrets lawsuit (April 2025) but the residential portal turf war continues; Realtor.com and Zillow have launched competing AI search experiences; pricing power on Homes.com unproven at scale.

3. What Does This Company Actually Do?

CoStar Group operates two reporting segments — Commercial (the historic CoStar information and LoopNet marketplace business plus BizBuySell, Ten-X auctions and CoStar Real Estate Manager) and Residential (Apartments.com, Homes.com, OnTheMarket UK, Domain Australia, Land.com and Matterport). The segment composition was changed in Q4 2025 from a geography view to a product-portfolio view to reflect the now-global residential push.

FY2025 revenue mix ($ billions):

• Commercial segment — ~$1.79 bn (~55% of total): includes the flagship CoStar information service, LoopNet, BizBuySell, Ten-X and CoStar Real Estate Manager. Q1 2026 commercial revenue was $472 m, +15% YoY, with CoStar at $331 m (+9%) and LoopNet at $85 m (+16%).
• Residential segment — ~$1.46 bn (~45% of total): Apartments.com is the cash engine ($312 m in Q1 2026, +10% — 15th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth); Homes.com is the high-growth investment platform ($26 m in Q1 2026, +58%); OnTheMarket UK; Domain Holdings Australia (consolidated from 27 Aug 2025); Matterport (consolidated from 28 Feb 2025).

Q1 2026 product-line revenue: CoStar $331 m (+9%); Apartments.com $312 m (+10%); LoopNet $85 m (+16%); Homes.com $26 m (+58%); plus Domain, OnTheMarket, Matterport, BizBuySell, LandsofAmerica and other international portals making up the balance to $897 m.

Geographic mix: CoStar is no longer a US-only story. Domain (Australia, August 2025), OnTheMarket (UK, December 2023) and Matterport (global SaaS, February 2025) materially expand the international footprint. The 2025 international revenue figure was not separately reported following the Q4 2025 segmentation change.

4. The Business Model

CoStar sells subscription-based information services to commercial real estate professionals (the historic moat; multi-year contracts with industry-leading retention) and operates online marketplaces that monetise via paid listings and agent / landlord membership fees. Roughly 95% of revenue is recurring subscription / membership; bookings convert to revenue over the subsequent 12–24 months.

• Commercial — the cash engine: CoStar's flagship information service has >90% gross retention; LoopNet operates the largest commercial real estate listings marketplace in the US. FY25 commercial adjusted EBITDA was $672 m at >35% margin; Q1 2026 commercial margin was 34%, above the high end of guidance.
• Residential — the investment cycle: Apartments.com is the profit centre (the Karl-Urban "Apartments.com" multi-million-dollar advertising campaign drove paid landlord membership to category leadership; 11× consecutive years rated the #1 multifamily site). Homes.com is the new investment, designed as a listing-agent-friendly model (flat membership rather than buyer-agent leads, the differentiator versus Zillow's Premier Agent). FY25 residential adjusted EBITDA was a $230 m loss, narrowing from $361 m loss in FY24; management has guided Homes.com to profitability by 2030.
• Capital allocation: $1.5 bn buyback authorised January 2026; $505 m executed in Q1 2026 via accelerated share repurchase; total ~$700 m cash repurchases planned for 2026 vs $500 m completed in 2025. CoStar pays no dividend and has never paid one.
• M&A engine: Matterport ($1.6 bn cash, closed 28 Feb 2025); Domain Holdings Australia (A$3.0 bn enterprise value, closed 27 Aug 2025); OnTheMarket (UK, closed Dec 2023, ~£99 m); plus BizBuySell, Ten-X, STR Inc, RentPath (2021), Homesnap (2020).
• Subsidy / regulatory credit dependency: none material. Revenue is subscription and marketplace-fee driven. CoStar does collect government property data feeds but does not depend on tax credits or regulatory credits for any meaningful share of revenue.

5. Financial Health

Five-year fiscal trend (years ended 31 December, $ billions unless noted):

Metric	FY21	FY22	FY23	FY24	FY25
Revenue	1.94	2.18	2.46	2.74	3.25
YoY growth	+19%	+12%	+13%	+11%	+19%
Adjusted EBITDA	~0.55	~0.41	~0.34	~0.24	0.442
Net income (GAAP)	~0.29	~0.37	~0.37	~0.14	0.007
Cash & investments (year end)	~5.0	~4.9	~5.1	~4.7	~1.6
Long-term debt	~1.0	~1.0	~1.0	~1.0	~0.99

The FY25 GAAP net income of $7 m and the cash drawdown from ~$4.7 bn to ~$1.6 bn reflect the cash deployment for Matterport (~$1.6 bn in Feb 2025) and the substantial Domain Holdings cash component (closed Aug 2025) plus the 2025 buyback. Adjusted EBITDA recovered sharply in FY25 (+83%) as the residential investment intensity peaked.

Last five quarters — revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin (CoStar reports adjusted EBITDA rather than gross margin at the consolidated level for quarterly cadence; we use it as the closest comparable profitability metric):

Quarter	Period end	Revenue	YoY growth	Adj. EBITDA	Adj. EBITDA margin
Q1 2025	31 Mar 2025	$732 m	+12%	~$66 m	~9%
Q2 2025	30 Jun 2025	$781 m	+15%	~$92 m	~12%
Q3 2025	30 Sep 2025	$834 m	+20%	~$107 m	~13%
Q4 2025	31 Dec 2025	$900 m	+27%	$177 m	~20%
Q1 2026	31 Mar 2026	$897 m	+23%	$132 m	~15%

Balance sheet at 31 December 2025: cash & investments ~$1.6 bn; long-term debt ~$0.99 bn; total stockholders' equity ~$7.5 bn; debt-to-equity ~13%; cash-to-debt ratio 1.38× (down from a 10-year median of 4.28× following the Matterport and Domain cash deployments). Total shares outstanding ~408–424 m post the Q1 2026 ASR.

6. Valuation & Market Data

Metric	Value (early May 2026 unless noted)
Share price (close 28 Apr 2026, post Q1 print)	$35.96
Recent quote (early May 2026)	~$34.54–$34.72
52-week high / date	$97.43 (mid-2025)
52-week low / date	$33.32 (April 2026)
1-year price change	~−63%
Market cap	~$14.18–$14.5 bn
Enterprise value	~$13.6 bn (cash $1.6 bn, debt ~$0.99 bn)
Shares outstanding	~408 m (per stockanalysis.com snapshot); ~424 m per other feeds pre-Q1 ASR
P/E (trailing, GAAP)	~567× (FY25 GAAP EPS only $0.06; figure not meaningful)
P/E (forward, on midpoint $1.355 adj. EPS guide)	~24×–26×
P/S (TTM)	~4.2× ($14.2 bn / $3.41 bn TTM)
EV/Sales	~4.0×
EV/EBITDA (FY25 adjusted)	~30.7× ($13.6 bn / $442 m)
EV/EBITDA (2026 mid-point guide)	~17.0× ($13.6 bn / $800 m)
Beta	~0.75
Dividend yield	0% (no dividend)
Short interest	16.64 m shares (4.01% of float, days to cover 2.71)
Off-exchange short volume	795,302 shares (~31.6% of total short volume)

Note: GAAP trailing P/E is mathematically inflated by a near-zero net income line item that reflects deliberate Homes.com investment intensity, integration-related charges and Matterport / Domain accounting items. Management focuses investor attention on adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS.

7. What Are They Building / What's Coming?

• Homes AI (launched 17 Feb 2026): conversational, two-way AI home search powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI and integrated with Matterport 3D digital twins. Draws on Homes.com property data, school data, neighbourhood insights and proprietary market intelligence. Data is kept inside the Homes.com ecosystem and not used to train external models. CoStar plans to extend the same pattern to Apartments.com, LoopNet, Land.com, BizBuySell and other marketplaces.
• Matterport integration (closed 28 Feb 2025, $1.6 bn): 14 m+ digitised spaces, 50 bn sq ft of digitised property across 177 countries; Cortex AI engine; ~500 employees added. Strategic objective: combine with CoStar's property data to feed Homes AI, Apartments.com 3D listings, LoopNet 3D, and lender / investor digital twin offerings.
• Domain Holdings Australia (closed 27 Aug 2025, A$3.0 bn EV): Australia's #2 residential portal. Folded into the residential segment; CoStar has signalled it will run the Homes.com playbook in Australia (membership-based agent monetisation versus REA Group's lead-gen model).
• OnTheMarket (UK, closed Dec 2023): per estate-agency press, two years post-acquisition the UK portal has grown leads ~100%, traffic ~55% and stock ~47%; £50 m of investment committed.
• Homes.com price increases: announced 1 May 2026 effective date for new-member subscription price increases; cited research found 11× ROI for members and average commission gains of $36,400 vs the $3,400 annual subscription.
• 2026 share buyback: $1.5 bn programme authorised in January 2026; $505 m executed in Q1 via ASR; expectation of an additional ~$195 m later in 2026 (total ~$700 m cash outlay for the year).
• Patents and IP: Matterport's patented capture & rendering technology; Cortex AI software stack. CoStar's commercial information moat is based on a proprietary research field force of ~1,000+ researchers who continuously verify property data — a hard-to-replicate competitive asset.
• Medium-term targets: ~15% revenue CAGR 2025–2028; adjusted EBITDA reaching ~$1.25 bn by 2028; Homes.com profitability by 2030.

8. Competitive Landscape

CoStar competes on two fronts. In commercial information / software it competes with Yardi, RealPage and MRI Software (the workflow stack); in residential portals it competes with Zillow Group, Move (News Corp / Realtor.com), Redfin (now part of Rocket Companies, acquired 2025 for $1.75 bn), Compass and Australia's REA Group. The residential layer is the central strategic battle.

Competitor	Position	Quoted share / scale
Zillow Group (Z, ZG)	US residential portal #1	~235–243 m monthly UVs (Q2 2025); ~2.6 bn quarterly visits
Move (News Corp) / Realtor.com	US residential portal #2	~30.1 m monthly visitors (2024 Statista)
CoStar / Homes.com Network	US residential portal challenger	~108 m monthly UVs (network total 2025); 100 m at Homes.com proper
Compass (COMP)	Brokerage with portal	~22.9 m monthly visitors
Redfin (acquired by Rocket 2025)	Brokerage portal	~9.8 m monthly visitors
RealPage (commercial / multifamily)	Real-estate software market #1 by share	~13.4% of global real-estate software market (2024)
Yardi Systems	Real-estate software	FY revenue ~$2.2 bn; cited #2/#3 in real-estate software
MRI Software	Real-estate software	Privately held (Thoma Bravo); cited as a top-5 vendor

Top-10 real-estate software vendors accounted for 51.2% of the $9.5 bn global real-estate software market in 2024 (Apps Run The World). By company revenue, CoStar Group ($2.74 bn FY24 / $3.25 bn FY25) is the largest by revenue, with Yardi (~$2.2 bn) and RealPage (~$1.6 bn) the next two. The Homes.com Network's 108 m monthly UVs is an "all-CoStar" figure that includes Apartments.com and Land.com.

Direct competitors by line: Commercial information — Yardi (Voyager / Genesis), RealPage (multifamily / commercial), MRI Software, Altus Group, Reonomy, CompStak. Multifamily marketing — RentCafe (Yardi), Zillow Rentals, Rent. (formerly RentPath, now CoStar). Commercial listings — Crexi, Buildout, Brevitas. Residential portals — Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Compass, REA Group (Australia — Domain's domestic competitor), Rightmove (UK — OnTheMarket's domestic competitor), ImmoScout24 (Germany).

9. Leadership and Ownership

Executive team:

• Andy (Andrew C.) Florance — Founder, President & CEO. Founded the company in 1986 and has run it ever since. Total compensation 2024: ~$37.4 m (a major activist criticism point). 2024 also saw an open-market purchase of 14,731 shares (~$1 m) at $44.52 per share, lifting his direct holding above 1.58 m shares.
• Christian Lown — CFO.
• Frank A. Simuro — CTO.
• Jason Butler — CIO.
• William Warmington Jr. — VP, Investor Relations.

Board of directors: chaired by Louise Sams (independent chair from April 2025; director since 2019). The board was refreshed in April 2025 with three new directors — John Berisford (former S&P Global Ratings President), Rachel Glaser (former Etsy CFO) and Christine McCarthy (former Walt Disney CFO; current Flutter Entertainment, FM Global and Procter & Gamble director). Michael Klein, Christopher Nassetta and Laura Kaplan retired from the board. The board is now eight directors, seven of whom are independent. Nana Banerjee was appointed in early 2026.

Ownership: ~98.7% institutional / 1.46% insider / 0.0% retail (Wallet Investor / WallStreetZen). Top holder: Vanguard Group ~16.7% (~70.1 m shares). Other major holders include BlackRock, Bamco Inc., State Street, Principal Financial Group, Vanguard Real Estate Index, Baillie Gifford, Geode Capital and Capital International. Andy Florance directly owned 1,527,273 shares as of 1 March 2026 after a tax-withholding event on RSU vesting.

Recent insider Form 4 transactions:

Date	Insider	Role	Type	Shares	Price	10b5-1?
1 Mar 2026	Andy Florance	CEO	Tax withholding on RSU vesting	59,593 disposed	$44.63	n/a (vesting)
27 Feb 2026	Andy Florance	CEO	RSU grant (3-yr cliff/tranche vest 2027/28/29)	83,708 RSUs	—	Grant
2024 (full-year, prior plan)	Andy Florance	CEO	Open-market purchase	55,720	$44.52 avg	Discretionary
25 Oct 2024	Andy Florance	CEO	Open-market purchase	14,731	~$67.90	Discretionary

Activist history: Third Point (Daniel Loeb) launched an activist campaign in January 2026, criticising "misallocation of billions of dollars" into Homes.com and citing a 5-year stock decline. Third Point disclosed in mid-April 2026 that it had liquidated its entire stake (more than 2 m shares as of mid-2025) and dropped the planned proxy fight. D.E. Shaw also wrote a critical letter prior to disengaging. CoStar refreshed the board, appointed an independent chair, and approved a redesigned 2026 executive compensation programme with "more rigorous and quantitative goals" in response.

10. Risks and Challenges

• Homes.com ROI / payback risk: management has guided Homes.com to profitability only by 2030; FY25 residential adjusted EBITDA loss was $230 m (improved from $361 m loss FY24). Third Point pointed to a cited ~$5 bn cumulative spend versus an estimated ~$80 m of 2025 Homes.com revenue. Even after Loeb's exit, the spend-vs-monetisation question remains live.
• Zillow scale advantage: Zillow's ~240 m monthly UVs and ~2.6 bn quarterly visits is more than 2× the entire CoStar Homes.com Network (108 m UVs). Zillow has launched its own AI search; Realtor.com is also pushing AI. Network-effects gravity remains a risk.
• Trailing P/E optics: ~567× trailing GAAP P/E (FY25 net income just $7 m). The number is mathematically inflated and management directs investors to adjusted EBITDA and EPS, but the optics are a real headwind for index funds and passive screens.
• CEO key-man / pay risk: Florance is the founder and dominant decision-maker; his ~$37.4 m FY24 compensation was a primary activist grievance. The 2026 compensation redesign and refreshed board partially address this, but the structural concentration of strategic decision-making remains.
• Integration risk — multiple large deals at once: Matterport ($1.6 bn, Feb 2025), Domain Holdings Australia (A$3.0 bn EV, Aug 2025), OnTheMarket (Dec 2023). Three cross-border integrations are in flight simultaneously while Homes AI is being launched on Microsoft Azure OpenAI.
• Cash position more constrained: cash & investments ended FY25 at ~$1.6 bn vs ~$4.7 bn at the end of FY24, after Matterport and Domain cash deployments. Cash-to-debt fell to 1.38× from a 10-year median of 4.28×. Buyback intensity ($700 m planned 2026) will keep the cushion thin until residential profitability turns.
• Macro / commercial real-estate cycle: CoStar's flagship commercial information service is sold to brokers, lenders, owners and property managers — all sensitive to interest rates and commercial property transaction volumes.
• Litigation tail: Move (News Corp / Realtor.com) dropped its trade-secrets suit with prejudice in April 2025 after CoStar threatened sanctions, but Florance has publicly characterised the action as a "PR stunt"; antitrust and IP claims are a recurring industry risk.
• Currency exposure: Australia (Domain), UK (OnTheMarket) and Matterport's ~177-country footprint introduce non-trivial FX translation and economic exposure that did not exist before 2023.
• Subsidy / regulatory dependency: none material. The principal regulatory exposures are around real estate listing data and the post-NAR-settlement US residential commission landscape.

11. Recent Developments

• 1 May 2026 — Effective date for previously-announced Homes.com new-member subscription price increases; cited 11× ROI / $36,400 commission-gain reference point.
• 29 April 2026 — Florance gave several interviews defending Homes.com strategy after the Third Point exit, characterising CoStar as "more focused" without the activist "distraction".
• 28 April 2026 — Q1 2026 earnings: revenue $897 m (+23%); Commercial $472 m (+15%); Residential $425 m (+32%); CoStar $331 m (+9%); Apartments.com $312 m (+10%); LoopNet $85 m (+16%); Homes.com $26 m (+58%, agent subscribers +205% YoY to 35,175); adj. EBITDA $132 m (+100%); adj. EPS $0.23. Q2 2026 revenue guide $922–$932 m (+18–19%). Full-year 2026 adj. EBITDA guide raised to $780–$820 m; adj. EPS to $1.32–$1.39.
• 15–17 April 2026 — Reports of CoStar layoffs at the Richmond, Virginia campus as part of personnel-expense efficiency initiatives flagged in the 2026 outlook.
• 13–14 April 2026 — Third Point disclosed liquidation of its entire CoStar position and abandonment of the planned proxy fight. Loeb wrote that "we no longer believe that our original thesis holds true today and have disposed of our position in its entirety". Third Point had held more than 2 m shares as of June 2025.
• 1 March 2026 — Andy Florance Form 4: 59,593 shares disposed at $44.63 for tax withholding on PSU/RSU vesting; direct holding 1,527,273 shares.
• 27 Feb 2026 — Florance granted 83,708 RSUs vesting in three tranches (1 Mar 2027 / 2028 / 2029).
• 24 Feb 2026 — FY2025 results: revenue $3.25 bn (+19%); Q4 2025 revenue $900 m (+27%); FY25 adj. EBITDA $442 m (+83%); Q4 adj. EBITDA $177 m (+58%); FY25 net income $7 m; record net new bookings $308 m; $700 m 2026 share-repurchase plan announced. Domain folded into the Homes.com playbook for Australia.
• 17 Feb 2026 — CoStar launched Homes AI on Homes.com, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI and integrated with Matterport 3D digital twins; conversational text/voice search; data kept inside the Homes.com proprietary ecosystem.
• ~14 Jan 2026 — Third Point publicly launched its activist campaign with a slate of board nominees and a critique of Homes.com spending and CEO compensation.
• ~7 Jan 2026 — CoStar provided a Full Year 2026 and medium-term outlook ($1.5 bn buyback authorised; medium-term ~15% revenue CAGR 2025–2028; adj. EBITDA $1.25 bn by 2028).
• 27 Aug 2025 — Domain Holdings Australia acquisition completed at A$4.43/share / A$3.0 bn EV (after CoStar acquired ~17% in February 2025 at A$4.20/share for ~A$452 m).
• July 2025 — Q2 2025 earnings: revenue $781 m (+15%); record quarterly net new bookings $93 m; Homes.com members +56% from Q1.
• 7 Apr 2025 — Move (News Corp / Realtor.com) trade-secrets suit dismissed with prejudice; CoStar paid nothing.
• April 2025 — Board refreshment: Louise Sams appointed independent chair; Berisford, Glaser and McCarthy added; Klein, Nassetta and Kaplan retired.
• 28 Feb 2025 — Matterport acquisition completed (~$1.6 bn cash); ~500 employees added.

12. Key Dates Coming Up

• 1 May 2026 — Homes.com new-member subscription price increases take effect.
• ~Late July 2026 — Q2 2026 earnings release (period ending 30 June 2026); CoStar's typical pattern is the last Tuesday of July.
• ~June 2026 — Annual Stockholders Meeting (CoStar's AGM is typically held in June; this year is the first post-Third-Point exit and post-board-refresh).
• ~Late October 2026 — Q3 2026 earnings.
• ~Mid-late February 2027 — FY2026 / Q4 2026 earnings.
• Ongoing 2026 — Roll-out of Homes AI conversational search across Apartments.com, LoopNet, Land.com, BizBuySell and other CoStar marketplaces.
• 2026–2028 — Medium-term targets — ~15% revenue CAGR; adjusted EBITDA $1.25 bn by 2028; Homes.com profitability targeted 2030.

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