Short Interest in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Expands By 31.4%

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,260,000 shares, a growth of 31.4% from the February 28th total of 10,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Argus lowered shares of Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Copart

In other Copart news, Director James E. Meeks sold 100,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total transaction of $5,400,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matt Blunt sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.66, for a total value of $2,883,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 385,480 shares of company stock valued at $21,667,683 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Copart

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Sandy Spring Bank grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 59.5% in the 4th quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 472 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Copart in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Copart during the third quarter valued at $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in Copart by 1,737.1% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 643 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 608 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Copart in the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Copart Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ CPRT traded up $1.04 on Monday, reaching $56.19. 2,780,794 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,253,608. Copart has a 12 month low of $48.05 and a 12 month high of $64.38. The company has a market cap of $54.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.73 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.23.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. Copart had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 32.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.13 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Copart will post 1.57 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.