Whittier Trust Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Whittier Trust Co. raised its holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 521,203 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,372 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Copart were worth $25,570,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Copart by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,263,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,900,295,000 after buying an additional 2,134,890 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Copart by 3.3% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 39,409,377 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,230,177,000 after buying an additional 1,249,687 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Copart by 15.9% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,345,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $868,417,000 after buying an additional 2,106,656 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Copart by 7.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,490,237 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $537,052,000 after buying an additional 658,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake 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 buying an additional 2,299,192 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CPRT shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Stephens cut their price objective on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.50.

Copart Stock Up 0.9%

Copart stock opened at $44.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $43.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.98 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $43.32 and a 52 week high of $64.38. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $46.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.74.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was 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 approximately $1,403,360.28. This trade represents a 43.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.