Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) Sets New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday after Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $52.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Copart traded as low as $39.38 and last traded at $39.8070, with a volume of 5673651 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $41.02.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CPRT. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Stephens lowered their price objective 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. HSBC set a $62.00 price target on shares of Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $33.00 price objective on shares of Copart in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Copart currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.60.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Copart

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Copart by 2.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 108,990,652 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,901,310,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581,784 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Copart by 3.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 40,175,058 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,806,674,000 after buying an additional 1,236,101 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Copart by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,062,931 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,666,720,000 after buying an additional 656,428 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Copart by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,462,076 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $999,305,000 after acquiring an additional 656,333 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,345,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $868,417,000 after acquiring an additional 2,106,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Stock Down 2.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $38.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.01 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $43.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.11.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The business services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS 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.