AIA Group Ltd Purchases 9,011 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

AIA Group Ltd grew its position in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 11.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 89,695 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,011 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Copart were worth $4,395,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Copart by 100.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,201,821,000 after purchasing an additional 48,891,984 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Copart by 96.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,803,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,715,114,000 after purchasing an additional 19,576,719 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Copart by 84.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,929,180 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $772,568,000 after purchasing an additional 8,205,757 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Copart by 79.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,359,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $748,006,000 after purchasing an additional 7,666,881 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Copart by 93.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,733,860 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $634,882,000 after purchasing an additional 7,122,991 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Copart from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.00.

Insider Transactions at Copart

In other news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total transaction of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares in the company, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Copart news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 285,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.27, for a total value of $15,751,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 35,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,934,450. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total value of $34,662,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 985,000 shares of company stock worth $55,519,950 over the last ninety days. 10.23% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Copart Price Performance

NASDAQ:CPRT traded down $0.61 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $53.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,784,022 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,600,771. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.96. The company has a market capitalization of $51.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.43 and a beta of 1.22. Copart, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.35 and a twelve month high of $58.58.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.02). Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 21.55%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal 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.