11,403 Shares in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Acquired by American Trust

American Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 11,403 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $598,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Copart by 1,282.8% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,301 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $423,000 after purchasing an additional 6,773 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Copart by 9.1% during the second quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 12,233 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $663,000 after buying an additional 1,024 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Copart by 2.9% in the second quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 7,098 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Copart by 1.9% in the second quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 16,385 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Copart by 14.0% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,970 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,082,000 after buying an additional 2,453 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 stock was sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total value of $16,038,273.17. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 14,436,557 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $920,907,971.03. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 83,310 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $485,601. This represents a 91.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.68% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Copart Trading Down 1.4 %

CPRT traded down $0.85 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $61.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,702,567 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,429,008. Copart, Inc. has a 1 year low of $46.21 and a 1 year high of $64.38. The stock's 50-day moving average is $57.01 and its 200-day moving average is $54.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.12 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CPRT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Copart from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th.

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.