D.A. Davidson & CO. Raises Stake in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 116.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,421 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,052 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Copart were worth $1,100,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Copart by 4.9% in the first quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,649 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $263,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in shares of Copart by 0.7% in the second quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 30,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,487,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its stake in shares of Copart by 1.8% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 12,590 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $712,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its stake in shares of Copart by 4.0% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,780 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Copart by 15.4% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Copart

In other news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total value of $10,879,053.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $1,087,635.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 31,332 shares in the company, valued at $1,403,360.28. This trade represents a 43.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.68% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Copart Price Performance

CPRT opened at $44.16 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $42.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.60 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a 1-year low of $43.32 and a 1-year high of $64.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.34.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CPRT. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on shares of Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Copart has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

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.