Congress Asset Management Co. Reduces Stake in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Key Points

• Congress Asset Management Co. significantly reduced its stake in Copart, Inc. by 85.4%, selling 1,824,004 shares and retaining 311,603 shares valued at approximately $15.3 million.
• CEO Jeffrey Liaw and Director Thomas N. Tryforos both sold substantial shares of Copart, with Liaw's sale being a 43.31% decrease in his ownership.
• Copart’s latest earnings report showed an EPS of $0.41, exceeding predictions, while the company's revenue increased by 2.9% year-over-year, underscoring resilient financial performance.

Congress Asset Management Co. lowered its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 85.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 311,603 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 1,824,004 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Copart were worth $15,290,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Copart in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Atticus Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Copart in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Copart in the first quarter worth about $36,000. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Copart by 152.6% in the first quarter. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 783 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SouthState Corp bought a new stake in Copart in the first quarter worth about $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CPRT has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Copart and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Stephens decreased 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 note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Copart from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total value of $1,118,405.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,527 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,463,798.61. The trade was a 43.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 9.68% of the company's stock.

Copart Stock Performance

Copart stock opened at $44.87 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $47.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.92. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.67 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38. The company has a market capitalization of $43.39 billion, a PE ratio of 28.04 and a beta of 1.03.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. Copart's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share 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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CPRT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.