Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Short Interest Update

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,730,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the December 15th total of 11,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th.

Copart Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CPRT traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $56.90. 3,335,342 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,104,842. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.71. The company has a market cap of $54.82 billion, a PE ratio of 40.07 and a beta of 1.33. Copart has a twelve month low of $47.51 and a twelve month high of $64.38.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 251,423 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $16,038,273.17. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 14,436,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $920,907,971.03. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 83,310 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.86, for a total transaction of $5,153,556.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,850 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $485,601. This represents a 91.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 650,213 shares of company stock valued at $39,199,813. 9.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copart

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Copart by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,326,381 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $126,012,000 after purchasing an additional 87,718 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Copart by 1.1% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 51,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,798,000 after acquiring an additional 576 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in shares of Copart by 13.9% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 13,871 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $751,000 after acquiring an additional 1,691 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Copart by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 9,657 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in Copart by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 90,541 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,904,000 after purchasing an additional 8,155 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.