Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 374,653 Shares of Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Handelsbanken Fonder AB cut its holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 43.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 479,683 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 374,653 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Copart were worth $23,538,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Copart in the 1st quarter worth approximately $267,723,000. Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in shares of Copart by 75.3% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 7,000,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $343,511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,007,820 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Copart by 56.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,407,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $314,415,000 after acquiring an additional 2,310,067 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in Copart by 32.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 9,380,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $531,256,000 after acquiring an additional 2,299,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Copart by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 106,408,868 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,221,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,144,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on CPRT. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC set a $62.00 price target on Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective (up from $32.00) on shares of Copart in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Copart from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Copart has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $1,087,635.57. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 31,332 shares in the company, valued at $1,403,360.28. The trade was a 43.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total value of $10,879,053.60. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 9.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Copart Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of Copart stock opened at $40.73 on Friday. Copart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $39.38 and a 52 week high of $64.38. The company has a market capitalization of $39.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.87.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The company’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.37 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect 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.