Advisors Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 5.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Copart were worth $424,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Copart in the first quarter worth about $267,723,000. Fiera Capital Corp raised its position in Copart by 195.6% during the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 3,992,610 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $225,942,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,100 shares during the period. Amundi raised its position in Copart by 32.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 9,380,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $531,256,000 after purchasing an additional 2,299,192 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Copart by 2.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,263,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,900,295,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,890 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Copart by 15.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,345,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $868,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,106,656 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Hsbc Global Res raised Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Copart from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.50.

Copart Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ CPRT opened at $48.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.80 billion, a PE ratio of 30.25 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $47.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.47. Copart, Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.05 and a 12-month high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. Copart had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 33.41%.The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Copart

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,527 shares in the company, valued at $1,463,798.61. This trade represents a 43.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 9.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Copart Company Profile

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.