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

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,430,000 shares, an increase of 14.3% from the September 30th total of 11,750,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,450,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copart

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CPRT. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Copart during the third quarter worth approximately $319,000. Hills Bank & Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 52.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co now owns 16,877 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $884,000 after buying an additional 5,782 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 27,979 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,466,000 after acquiring an additional 808 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Copart by 7.4% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 550,276 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $28,834,000 after acquiring an additional 37,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Copart during the third quarter worth $28,411,000. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Copart from $58.00 to $56.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th.

Copart Trading Up 0.6 %

CPRT stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $52.18. 2,256,108 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,449,585. Copart has a 52-week low of $42.41 and a 52-week high of $58.58. The stock's fifty day moving average is $52.30 and its 200-day moving average is $53.07. The company has a market cap of $50.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.51 and a beta of 1.27.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). Copart had a return on equity of 19.55% and a net margin of 32.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Copart will post 1.54 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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