Caxton Associates LLP Increases Stake in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Caxton Associates LLP increased its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 65.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,187 shares during the period. Caxton Associates LLP’s holdings in Copart were worth $3,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 2.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 106,408,868 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,221,483,000 after buying an additional 2,144,946 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Copart by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,406,503 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,786,467,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167,265 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Copart by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,462,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $999,305,000 after acquiring an additional 656,333 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Copart during the 2nd quarter valued at about $549,448,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Copart by 7.1% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,160,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $498,566,000 after purchasing an additional 670,061 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on CPRT. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on Copart and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Stephens reduced their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 24th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Copart from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.07, for a total value of $3,907,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $1,087,635.57. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,332 shares in the company, valued at $1,403,360.28. This represents a 43.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 353,123 shares of company stock worth $15,873,689. Corporate insiders own 9.60% of the company’s stock.

Copart Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CPRT opened at $38.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.58 and a beta of 1.12. Copart, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.18 and a 12 month high of $63.85. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.62.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. Copart had a net margin of 34.24% and a return on equity of 17.78%. The business’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.37 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.