Short Interest in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Decreases By 7.1%

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in 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 trading volume, of 3,850,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Copart Stock Down 0.7 %

CPRT stock traded down $0.44 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $59.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,392,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,039,759. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $58.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.50. Copart has a 1 year low of $48.05 and a 1 year high of $64.38. The stock has a market cap of $57.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.82 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity at Copart

In other news, Director Diane M. Morefield sold 30,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.01, for a total transaction of $1,740,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,160,200. This trade represents a 60.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 251,423 shares of Copart stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total value of $16,038,273.17. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 14,436,557 shares in the company, valued at $920,907,971.03. The trade was a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 650,213 shares of company stock valued at $39,199,813 over the last ninety days. 9.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Copart

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Copart during the 4th quarter valued at $3,962,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Copart by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 52,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,765,000 after purchasing an additional 9,222 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Copart by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,763,926 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $979,547,000 after purchasing an additional 291,580 shares during the period. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Copart by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. now owns 89,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,715,000 after purchasing an additional 13,554 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Copart during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,206,000. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Copart

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.