Traders Purchase Large Volume of Copart Put Options (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 21,048 put options on the stock. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately393% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,266 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CPRT has been the subject of several research reports. HSBC set a $62.00 price target on shares of Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Copart from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $54.50.

Insider Transactions at Copart

In other Copart news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total value of $1,118,405.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 31,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,463,798.61. This trade represents a 43.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Copart by 84.4% during the 2nd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 49,013 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,313,000 after acquiring an additional 22,429 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Copart by 24.0% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 182,179 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,167,000 after acquiring an additional 35,295 shares during the period. American Trust grew its position in shares of Copart by 16.1% in the second quarter. American Trust now owns 13,935 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $684,000 after purchasing an additional 1,933 shares in the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Copart by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 42,780 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,099,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the period. Finally, Munro Partners purchased a new position in Copart during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,777,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT opened at $48.57 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $47.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.81. The company has a market capitalization of $46.96 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36 and a beta of 1.03. Copart has a 1 year low of $45.05 and a 1 year high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Copart will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

About Copart

Copart, Inc provides online auctions and vehicle remarketing services. It offers a range of services for processing and selling vehicles over the Internet through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation Internet auction-style sales technology on behalf of vehicle sellers, insurance companies, banks and finance companies, charities, and fleet operators and dealers, as well as individual owners.