Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Short Interest Down 7.1% in January

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,560,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the January 15th total of 11,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,850,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total value of $13,384,683.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 83,310 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.86, for a total value of $5,153,556.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 7,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $485,601. The trade was a 91.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 650,213 shares of company stock valued at $39,199,813 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Copart

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Copart by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,129,032 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,861,185,000 after acquiring an additional 976,909 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Copart by 2.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,876,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,037,130,000 after purchasing an additional 941,858 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Copart by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,157,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,789,877,000 after purchasing an additional 120,939 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC raised its stake in Copart by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 23,463,118 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,346,548,000 after buying an additional 2,907,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Copart by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 21,353,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,225,502,000 after buying an additional 169,354 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Copart Stock Up 0.3 %

CPRT opened at $59.59 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.96 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $58.20 and its 200-day moving average is $55.56. Copart has a 52-week low of $48.05 and a 52-week high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The business services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Copart had a net margin of 31.92% and a return on equity of 18.96%. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Copart will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th.

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.