Copart, Inc. $CPRT Shares Bought by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

Key Points

• IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in Copart, Inc. by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter, owning a total of 173,709 shares worth approximately $8.52 million.
• Copart reported an EPS of $0.41 for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, while revenue was around $1.13 billion, slightly below analyst forecasts.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds currently hold 85.78% of Copart's stock, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.

IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 173,709 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 21,227 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in Copart were worth $8,524,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the first quarter valued at approximately $267,723,000. Fiera Capital Corp grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 195.6% during the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 3,992,610 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $225,942,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,100 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 2.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,263,922 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,900,295,000 after purchasing an additional 2,134,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Copart by 15.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 15,345,768 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $868,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,106,656 shares during the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. HSBC set a $62.00 target price on Copart and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. 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. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Copart from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Copart presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $54.50.

Copart Stock Down 0.5%

CPRT traded down $0.24 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $45.14. The stock had a trading volume of 4,484,651 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,960,690. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.22 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.96 and a 1-year high of $64.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $47.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.12.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 33.41%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.