Schroder Investment Management Group Trims Holdings in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Schroder Investment Management Group decreased its position in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 38.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 449,113 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 279,922 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Copart were worth $22,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Copart during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $549,448,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Copart in the 1st quarter valued at $267,723,000. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in shares of Copart by 75.3% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 7,000,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $343,511,000 after acquiring an additional 3,007,820 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Copart by 56.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,310,067 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Copart by 32.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 9,380,026 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $531,256,000 after purchasing an additional 2,299,192 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on CPRT shares. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Stephens decreased their price objective on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Copart from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (up from $32.00) on shares of Copart in a report on Friday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.60.

Copart Stock Down 0.5%

CPRT stock opened at $38.96 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.62. Copart, Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.61 and a 52-week high of $63.85. The firm has a market cap of $37.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.76 and a beta of 1.12.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 17.78% and a net margin of 34.24%.Copart’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Copart news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were 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. This represents a 43.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.07, for a total transaction of $3,907,000.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 353,123 shares of company stock valued at $15,873,689 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.60% of the company’s stock.

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.