Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) saw a large 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 volume of 3,850,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Insider Activity

In other Copart news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 83,310 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,850 shares in the company, valued at $485,601. This trade represents a 91.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Diane M. Morefield sold 30,000 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 20,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,160,200. The trade was a 60.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 650,213 shares of company stock worth $39,199,813. Corporate insiders own 9.68% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Copart

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,962,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Copart by 21.2% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 52,767 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $2,765,000 after buying an additional 9,222 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Copart by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,763,926 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $979,547,000 after buying an additional 291,580 shares in the last quarter. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. boosted its stake in Copart by 17.7% during the third quarter. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. now owns 89,979 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,715,000 after buying an additional 13,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Copart during the third quarter valued at $1,206,000. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target 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 Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CPRT traded down $1.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $56.61. The company had a trading volume of 7,182,784 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,540,450. The company has a market capitalization of $54.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.87 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $58.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.61. Copart has a 12-month low of $48.05 and a 12-month high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. Copart had a net margin of 31.92% and a return on equity of 18.96%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Copart will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.