Short Interest in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) Decreases By 7.1%

Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,730,000 shares, a drop of 7.1% from the December 15th total of 11,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 251,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.79, for a total transaction of $16,038,273.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 14,436,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $920,907,971.03. This trade represents a 1.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Diane M. Morefield sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.01, for a total transaction of $1,740,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,160,200. The trade was a 60.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 650,213 shares of company stock worth $39,199,813 in the last three months. Company insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Copart

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in Copart in the 4th quarter worth about $3,962,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Copart by 21.2% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 52,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,765,000 after buying an additional 9,222 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Copart by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,763,926 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $979,547,000 after buying an additional 291,580 shares during the period. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 17.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kinsale Capital Group Inc. now owns 89,979 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,715,000 after acquiring an additional 13,554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Copart during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,418,000. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company’s stock.

Copart Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT traded up $0.50 during trading on Monday, reaching $56.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,335,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,104,842. Copart has a 12 month low of $47.51 and a 12 month high of $64.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.82 billion, a PE ratio of 40.07 and a beta of 1.33.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The business services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.37. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.10 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 18.96% and a net margin of 31.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Copart will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Copart from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th.

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.