BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Buys 202,986 Shares of Copart, Inc. $CPRT

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,510,276 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 202,986 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Copart were worth $172,250,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Copart by 92.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,215 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $816,000 after buying an additional 6,817 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA grew its position in Copart by 16.5% during the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 4,142 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 586 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its position in Copart by 18.9% during the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 10,369 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $587,000 after buying an additional 1,645 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Copart by 1.8% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,151,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $234,949,000 after buying an additional 73,157 shares during the period. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in 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 valued at $1,350,000 after buying an additional 8,181 shares during the period. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Copart

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

Copart Price Performance

CPRT opened at $42.85 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $41.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78 and a beta of 1.03. Copart, Inc. has a 1-year low of $41.96 and a 1-year high of $64.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.57.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 4th. The business services provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.04. Copart had a net margin of 33.41% and a return on equity of 18.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Copart, Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.