Machina Capital S.A.S. Buys New Shares in Copart, Inc. $CPRT

Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new stake in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 30,440 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,494,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Cloud Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Atticus Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Copart by 1,063.0% during the second quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 574 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Copart during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Copart Stock Performance

Copart stock opened at $43.00 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.69. The stock has a market cap of $41.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.88 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $41.96 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Copart had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 33.41%.The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Copart

In other Copart news, Director Thomas N. Tryforos sold 228,840 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.54, for a total transaction of $10,879,053.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey Liaw sold 24,283 shares of Copart stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.79, for a total value of $1,087,635.57. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 31,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,403,360.28. The trade was a 43.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 9.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CPRT shares. HSBC set a $62.00 price objective on Copart and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Hsbc Global Res raised Copart from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Copart from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Copart in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Copart from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.50.

Copart Company Profile

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.