Vise Technologies Inc. Acquires New Stake in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 21,911 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CPRT. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in Copart by 0.8% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 28,978 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,422,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in Copart by 36.7% during the second quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 138,844 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,813,000 after acquiring an additional 37,311 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in Copart by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,496,952 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,455,000 after acquiring an additional 104,447 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Copart in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,093,000. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE raised its position in shares of Copart by 93.6% during the 2nd quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 1,135,122 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,700,000 after acquiring an additional 548,712 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Copart news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total transaction of $1,087,635.57. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 31,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,403,360.28. The trade was a 43.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 9.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on CPRT shares. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Copart Price Performance

Shares of CPRT stock traded up $0.28 during trading on Thursday, reaching $41.56. The company had a trading volume of 445,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,121,967. Copart, Inc. has a one year low of $39.58 and a one year high of $64.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.83. The company has a market capitalization of $40.23 billion, a PE ratio of 26.02 and a beta of 1.06.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 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.