Park Avenue Securities LLC Reduces Holdings in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)

Park Avenue Securities LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,802 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,360 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Copart were worth $1,784,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CPRT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Copart by 100.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 97,512,662 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,201,821,000 after acquiring an additional 48,891,984 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Copart during the 4th quarter valued at about $463,262,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Copart by 84.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,929,180 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $772,568,000 after acquiring an additional 8,205,757 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Copart by 79.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 17,359,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $748,006,000 after acquiring an additional 7,666,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Copart by 102.2% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,725,148 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $419,057,000 after acquiring an additional 4,915,348 shares in the last quarter. 85.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Copart Price Performance

Copart stock opened at $54.24 on Monday. Copart, Inc. has a 12-month low of $42.41 and a 12-month high of $58.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.20 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $54.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.41.

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The business services provider reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. Copart had a net margin of 33.33% and a return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Copart, Inc. will post 1.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman A Jayson Adair sold 600,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.77, for a total value of $34,662,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 19,687,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,137,374,604.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 10.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Copart from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

Copart 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.