WASHINGTON TRUST Co Raises Position in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

WASHINGTON TRUST Co grew its stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,182 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,440 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Copart were worth $9,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in Copart by 0.7% during the second quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 30,312 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in shares of Copart by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 12,590 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $712,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its stake in Copart by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,780 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $327,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of Copart by 0.8% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 28,978 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,422,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Copart by 15.4% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,742 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Price Performance

Copart stock traded up $0.30 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $41.58. The stock had a trading volume of 1,170,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,124,202. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.03 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $44.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.83. Copart, Inc. has a 1-year low of $39.58 and a 1-year high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CPRT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on Copart and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Barclays set a $32.00 target price on shares of Copart in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Copart presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

Insider Transactions at Copart

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,403,360.28. This represents a 43.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 9.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Copart 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.