First Manhattan CO. LLC. Buys 10,363 Shares of Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Key Points

• First Manhattan CO. LLC increased its stake in Copart, Inc. by 0.3%, owning a total of 3,912,346 shares, which accounts for 0.6% of its overall holdings.
• Several other large investors also made adjustments to their positions in Copart, collectively indicating strong institutional interest, as 85.78% of the company's stock is owned by institutional investors.
• Research analysts have set new price targets for Copart, with significant downgrades from Robert W. Baird and JPMorgan Chase, reducing their targets from $64.00 to $55.00, suggesting a cautious outlook.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. raised its holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 0.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,912,346 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,363 shares during the quarter. Copart makes up about 0.6% of First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned approximately 0.40% of Copart worth $221,400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Copart in the 1st quarter valued at $604,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Copart by 52.2% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 23,862 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,350,000 after acquiring an additional 8,181 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its position in shares of Copart by 53.3% during the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 854,336 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $48,347,000 after acquiring an additional 297,210 shares during the last quarter. 111 Capital bought a new stake in shares of Copart during the fourth quarter worth $967,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in shares of Copart by 16.5% during the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 4,142 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $234,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.78% of the company's stock.

Copart Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CPRT traded down $1.40 on Friday, reaching $48.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 17,581,629 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,525,177. Copart, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.05 and a 1-year high of $64.38. The firm has a market cap of $46.96 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36 and a beta of 1.03. The business's 50-day moving average price is $47.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.81.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last posted 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. Copart had a return on equity of 18.65% and a net margin of 33.41%.The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Copart from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. 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 research note on Thursday, July 17th. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on Copart and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res raised Copart from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stephens decreased their price objective on Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One investment 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $54.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Copart

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,088 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.