Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Decreases Stock Holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lessened its holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT - Free Report) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,065,101 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 708,692 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.84% of Copart worth $462,857,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CPRT. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Copart during the 4th quarter worth $682,089,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Copart in the 4th quarter worth $253,686,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Copart by 23.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,440,046 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,115,664,000 after purchasing an additional 3,667,534 shares in the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC grew its holdings in Copart by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 23,463,118 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,346,548,000 after purchasing an additional 2,907,405 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Copart by 335.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,705,354 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $149,471,000 after buying an additional 2,084,626 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.78% of the company's stock.

Copart Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of CPRT traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $60.34. 707,370 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,407,176. The company has a market cap of $58.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.44 and a beta of 1.22. The company's 50-day moving average price is $56.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.20. Copart, Inc. has a 52-week low of $48.05 and a 52-week high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The business services provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. Copart had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 32.27%. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.13 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James E. Meeks sold 100,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total transaction of $5,400,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven D. Cohan sold 94,997 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.01, for a total value of $5,700,769.97. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 200,000 shares of company stock worth $11,401,000 in the last three months. 9.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Argus downgraded Copart from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th.

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.