Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Short Interest Update

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,260,000 shares, a growth of 31.4% from the February 28th total of 10,850,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 4,120,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Copart Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Copart stock opened at $56.59 on Tuesday. Copart has a 12-month low of $48.05 and a 12-month high of $64.38. The company has a market capitalization of $54.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.98 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $56.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.28.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Matt Blunt sold 50,000 shares of Copart stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.66, for a total transaction of $2,883,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Daniel J. Englander sold 235,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.84, for a total transaction of $13,384,683.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 385,480 shares of company stock worth $21,667,683 over the last three months. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copart

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 111 Capital acquired a new stake in Copart in the fourth quarter valued at $967,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Copart by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 87,613 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,028,000 after acquiring an additional 16,072 shares during the last quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,957 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the period. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its holdings in Copart by 178.7% in the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 138,217 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,932,000 after acquiring an additional 88,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cim LLC boosted its holdings in Copart by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 330,316 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $18,957,000 after acquiring an additional 3,608 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.