Copart, Inc. $CPRT Stock Sold by Avestar Capital LLC

Key Points

• Avestar Capital cut its Copart stake by 61.5% in the third quarter, selling 38,576 shares and retaining 24,115 shares valued at approximately $658,000.
• Institutional ownership remains high at 85.78%, with major investors including BlackRock, Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America increasing or initiating positions.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but leans positive: Copart has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $37.80, despite the company missing quarterly EPS estimates while revenue exceeded expectations.

Avestar Capital LLC cut its stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 61.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,115 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 38,576 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC's holdings in Copart were worth $658,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Copart in the second quarter valued at about $1,908,980,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Copart in the second quarter worth $488,663,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in Copart in the second quarter worth $436,413,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Copart by 28.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,706,517 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $322,256,000 after purchasing an additional 2,165,708 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Copart by 97.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 9,059,273 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $255,381,000 after purchasing an additional 4,482,226 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Diane Morefield sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.66, for a total value of $553,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,383,000. This represents a 28.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 9.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on CPRT shares. Barclays set a $25.00 price objective on Copart and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Copart from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of Copart in a research report on Tuesday. Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of Copart in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Copart from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Copart presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $37.80.

Copart Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of CPRT opened at $30.13 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.44, a PEG ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $29.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.44. Copart, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.72 and a 52 week high of $43.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 10th. The business services provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.14 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 15.93% and a net margin of 31.81%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Copart Profile

Copart, Inc is a provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services. The company operates a digital marketplace that connects vehicle sellers with a broad network of buyers, including licensed dismantlers, rebuilders, used-car dealers, exporters and individual consumers.

Copart primarily sells vehicles that have been damaged, declared total losses by insurers, repossessed, donated or otherwise designated for resale. Its services also include vehicle storage, transportation, towing coordination, title processing, inspection and auction support.

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