Capital Research Global Investors Has $744.10 Million Stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Capital Research Global Investors lowered its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 22.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,964,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 3,730,964 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors’ holdings in Copart were worth $744,097,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Copart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $682,089,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Copart in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $253,686,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Copart by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,440,046 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,115,664,000 after acquiring an additional 3,667,534 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Copart by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 23,463,118 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,346,548,000 after purchasing an additional 2,907,405 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Copart by 335.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,705,354 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $149,471,000 after buying an additional 2,084,626 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Argus cut Copart from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th.

Copart Stock Performance

Shares of CPRT opened at $59.68 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.90. The firm has a market cap of $57.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.05 and a beta of 1.22. Copart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.05 and a 52 week high of $64.38.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 value of $5,400,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven D. Cohan sold 94,997 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $5,700,769.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 200,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,401,000. 9.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.