D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Buys 383,186 Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 604.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 446,534 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 383,186 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Copart were worth $25,627,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Copart in the 4th quarter worth about $682,089,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $253,686,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,115,664,000 after purchasing an additional 3,667,534 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 14.1% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,157,306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $812,488,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785,741 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Copart Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of CPRT opened at $61.52 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $59.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.29 and a beta of 1.20. Copart, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.05 and a twelve month high of $64.38. The company has a 50 day moving average of $57.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.67.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Copart news, Director James E. Meeks sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $5,400,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Steven D. Cohan sold 94,997 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total transaction of $5,700,769.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 200,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,401,000. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.