Copart, Inc. $CPRT Shares Acquired by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Key Points

• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Copart, Inc. by 105.7% in the first quarter, acquiring a total of 910,250 shares valued at approximately $51.5 million.
• CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares on July 15th, reducing his position by 43.31%, and now holds shares worth about $1.46 million.
• Analysts have recently downgraded Copart's target price, with Robert W. Baird and JPMorgan lowering it from $64 to $55, indicating a more cautious outlook for the stock.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 105.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 910,250 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 467,686 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.09% of Copart worth $51,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CPRT. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Copart by 92.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,215 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $816,000 after purchasing an additional 6,817 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Copart by 46.9% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 17,307 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $993,000 after buying an additional 5,528 shares in the last quarter. Keel Point LLC lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 5,810 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in shares of Copart by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 64,478 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $3,700,000 after acquiring an additional 12,262 shares during the period. Finally, AXA S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Copart by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 347,901 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $19,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,824 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.78% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.43, for a total transaction of $1,118,405.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 31,527 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,463,798.61. This represents a 43.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 9.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CPRT shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Copart from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, HSBC set a $62.00 target price on shares of Copart and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $54.50.

Copart Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CPRT traded down $2.73 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.24. The company had a trading volume of 7,946,420 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,733,162. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04 and a beta of 1.03. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $47.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $52.89. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.05 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 32.21%.The company'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 company posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal 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.